ZION, Ill. — Two small planes collided and crashed to the ground, killing all three people on board, including Chicago's most popular morning radio host, Bob Collins of WGN.
One plane crashed onto a hospital roof Tuesday afternoon, injuring two people, blowing out the windows on the top floor and forcing evacuation of the building.
The accident in Zion, about 45 miles north of downtown Chicago, came just a day after four people died in a collision of two planes near Los Angeles. One plane crashed in flames on a golf course and the other fell into trees near busy Interstate 5. No one on the ground was hurt.
Les Mussared said he was standing in a parking lot near the Midwestern Regional Medical Center when the planes collided Tuesday.
"I looked up because I heard a gurgling noise. I saw two small planes collide in the air — they pulled away from each other," Mussared said.
Collins, 57, and Herman Luscher, 58, of Mettawa were in the plane that crashed on the hospital, said Lake County Coroner Barbara Richardson. It was unclear who was flying the plane, a two-seat Zlin aerobatic plane flown for sport, Richardson said.
Two hospital employees were slightly burned and the hospital's 65 patients were evacuated, but no patients were hurt, said hospital president Roger Cary.
The other plane, a four-seat Cessna 172, was being flown by a United Airlines flight attendant on a student pilot flight. Her name was not released pending notification of her family.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory initially said it appeared both planes were approaching the nearby Waukegan Airport. But she later said the FAA was also investigating whether one plane may have been landing and the other taking off.
Collins had been Chicago's top-rated morning radio host since 1986, blending news, talk, calls from listeners and interviews with public figures such as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Gov. George Ryan.
"He sort of presided over a daily town meeting of Chicago," said Robert Feder, television and radio columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times.
The governor said he and his wife, Lura Lynn, considered Collins a good friend.
"Bob was an ordinary guy who did an extraordinary job," Ryan said. "He loved Chicago and he loved its people. He made them happy; he made people feel good about themselves."
Spike O'Dell took over the microphone in Collins' 5 a.m. time slot today, filling in for "Uncle Bobby."
"Even if you were not particularly a Bob Collins radio fan, he made you listen to him," O'Dell told listeners. "He was the kind of guy that made you go 'What!' reach down and turn the radio up. That's why he was double above anybody else in the competition in the ratings."