Business
‘Icing Up Terribly’: The Tragic 1963 Flight That Crashed Into a Chicago Home
Thomas Somlo and his daughter Terri survived a 1963 plane crash. (Courtesy of Terri Galkin)
This story was included in Back in the Day, a regular feature of the Daily Chicagoan newsletter. Sign up here.
Chicago block parties often buzz with tales of quirky neighbors, old disputes and local lore. It’s rare when the day a private plane crashed into a home across from the DJ booth becomes the topic of conversation.
A friendly neighbor told me the story, and I have tried to learn everything I can about the case ever since.
While commercial air disasters like the American Airlines Flight 191 in 1979 that killed 279 people are more well known to most Chicagoans, there have been other crashes that were covered in far less detail.
On Jan. 2, 1963, a small airplane crashed into a midcentury home in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago north of Irving Park Road at about 5:10 p.m. during a winter weather advisory.
The house sat across from the now-closed Luther North High School. Rickover Naval Academy, a Chicago Public Schools high school, now occupies the site.
Thomas Somlo, 35, of Skokie, operated a vending machine business. That day, he piloted a Cessna with multiple passengers and no de-icing equipment, according to court records.
Ginette Somlo, 30, Susan Somlo, 4, Elise Vidal, 64, and Juana Hidalgo Cubias, 20, were pronounced dead following the tragic crash, which was returning from a holiday trip to Naples, Florida.
Ginette and Susan were the wife and daughter of Thomas. Vidal was Ginette’s mother from Paris, and Hidalgo of San Salvador was a housekeeper employed by the family.
Thomas Somlo and his daughter Terri survived the impact. Thomas Somlo’s injuries included a compound skull fracture, multiple rib fractures and a fractured left clavicle. Media reports indicate both remained in the hospital at least a month after the crash, with his recovery taking months.
Terri Galkin, now 67, doesn’t recall much about the crash because she was so young, she said. But she remembers its aftermath weighed heavily on her father.
“He carried the guilt for his entire life,” Galkin said.
Galkin said she was partially paralyzed for a time with health impacts that persisted after the crash.
The plane took off from Florida and refueled in Chattanooga before reaching Illinois.
The flight went down about five miles southeast of O’Hare International Airport. The investigation determined a two-inch crust of ice developed on the plane during the flight, eventually causing it to lose altitude and crash.
In the 1960s, many Chicago parks, including Portage Park, had ice skating rinks. Reports indicate Somlo attempted to land the airplane at the park, but changed his path when he saw children on the rink.
The transcript shows the final garbled transmission by Somlo was, “Icing up terribly, can you help me sir?” The wing hit a telephone pole during descent, spinning the plane before it crashed into the brick ranch, leaving a hole in a bedroom wall big enough for a person to crawl through.
The ranch home was owned at the time by a general practice doctor. Five people inside escaped injury, records show.
“He had been in the bedroom prior to the plane crash, but had gotten up for some reason a few minutes before,” a grandson of the family who owned the home at the time confirmed via email. “He was fortunate to have not been injured.”
Reports indicate the motor could be heard sputtering before many in the area heard an explosion. The family believed the source of the noise was a boiler exploding, according to news reports.
The Associated Press reported the doctor heard a woman screaming, “Get me out of here,” following the crash. A doll was visible in photographs of the wreckage.
The home has had multiple owners since the crash. Allen Wolach, 82, currently lives there. Wolach said he was not informed about the crash when he purchased the property about 15 years ago, but that he learned about it from neighbors after he moved in, reading archived newspaper clips.
One neighbor told Wolach he heard that the aircraft crashed because it was bringing back too many oranges from Florida.
There is no visible damage today in the home from the crash, Wolach said. Reports indicate the plane struck the west side of the property.
The crash was investigated at Midway Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration, Chicago Police Department and Chicago Fire Department all said there were no records in their possession related to the incident.
In response to the crash, former U.S. Rep. Roman Pucinski, a B-29 pilot during World War II who represented the 11th District at the time, urged the FAA to alter the routes flights took to reach the airport so that city residences would no longer be at risk following the incident.
A coroner’s jury determined Thomas Somlo was not licensed to fly a multi-engine plane with passengers. His commercial pilot’s license was suspended following the crash.
Somlo filed multiple lawsuits including a case for $1 million, blaming the FAA for allegations including failure to provide sufficient weather information before the crash. The cases were consolidated and later decided in favor of the government in 1967, records show.
Following the crash, Somlo remarried and lived together with his blended family while continuing his passion for travel, family members said. He died in 2005 at age 77.
Contact Jared Rutecki: @JaredRutecki | [email protected]
