Chicago Officials Order Overnight Airport Demolition
"We did it for public safety," says Mayor Richard M. Daley, whose action has been called "one of the boldest moves in the mayor's career." No public notice had been given.
Nine days earlier, The Federal Aviation Administration and the Dept. of Homeland Security had implemented a temporary flight restriction banning planes from flying over the city's downtown area. Daley and city emergency management officials claim that private aircraft flying to and from Meigs Field, although just outside the downtown perimeter, were still posing a security threat to nearby buildings. "We are not going to allow an airport to operate for a few people at the expense of a larger number of people," says Cortez Trotter, the Chicago's emergency response chief.