(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — It was Sept. 1, 1961.
Trans World Airlines Flight 529 left Midway Airport at 2 a.m. bound for Las Vegas.
Just four minutes later, the plane crashed in a field near Clarendon Hills Road and 61st Street, killing all 78 passengers and crew members aboard.
Federal officials said the loss of a bolt in the elevator boost mechanism caused the plane to plummet.
Years later, Mark Reynolds took a special interest in the crash while working for the Tri-State Fire Protection District.
“It was just something I wanted to learn more about, so I just started learning the history of what happened,” said Reynolds, who is now deputy chief of the Plainfield Fire Protection District.
Reynolds studied newspaper articles, heard witness accounts of the event and even managed to get his hands on a Baby Ben alarm clock from the crash site.
“The clock stopped at 2:04 — the exact time of the crash,” Reynolds said. “We've been in contact with Westclox, and they estimate the alarm clock was made between 1939 and 1942.”
As the 60th anniversary of the crash approached, Reynolds wanted to do something to commemorate the tragedy.
Partnering with the village of Willowbrook, he organized a ceremony at Prairie Trail Park, just across the street from the crash site.
“There's some people that are coming from Florida, there's going to be somebody coming from the FAA, I know there's a family in England, they're going to live-stream it,” said Reynolds.
Also in attendance is a woman who lived nearby with her husband when the plane crashed.
“They remember it,” said Reynolds. “I actually never realized that it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so to hear her husband say that their windows were just orange from the plane crash — they thought Chicago got bombed.”
The park will be the future home of a marble stone that features the names of the victims, a photo of the plane, as well as a dedication to the first responders.
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