Two-and-a-half minutes: Pilot John Ginley’s dance with disaster

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Investigation, Chicago, Radio, Arts, Society & Culture, Public, Education, Curious, City

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While flying over downtown Chicago on July 18, 2018, a World-War-II era single-engine Ercoupe airplane suffered “complete mechanical failure.” “The throttle cable completely broke off of the carburetor,” said pilot John Ginley. “There was no way to control the engine.” Still, Ginley and his co-pilot — his then-girlfriend and now-wife Ally Ginley — managed to land in the southbound lanes of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, successfully avoiding cars, humans, and the 35th Street pedestrian bridge. In our last episode, we heard about the history of forced plane landings on Chicago’s scenic, multilane expressway. Today, we hear Ginley’s story of escaping imminent disaster from the pilot himself.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Curious City is supported by the Poetry Foundation, with a reminder that Chicago is the pulse of poetry.
0:06.4	Visit the Poetry Foundation on the corner of Superior and Dearborn to explore their library of 40,000 books.
0:12.8	Attend public events and view Frenta la Vida, facing life a striking multidisciplinary art exhibition by Chicago artist Victoria Martinez.
0:21.8	Learn more at Poetry Foundation.org.
0:25.2	WBEZ's nonprofit spotlight is supported by UChicago Medicine,
0:29.2	providing expert primary and urgent care with locations throughout Chicagoland.
0:33.4	Their walk-in urgent care locations offer a variety of services for adults and kids seven days a week.
0:39.0	No appointment needed.
0:40.4	And for the visits that can wait a day or two, flexible hours and online scheduling make it possible to find a primary care provider partner.
0:47.9	Learn more at UChicagoland.org.
0:51.2	Sources and methods, the crown jewels of the intelligence community.
0:55.7	Shorthand for, how do we know what's real?
0:58.1	Who told us?
0:59.5	If you have those answers, you're on the inside.
1:01.9	And NPR wants to bring you there.
1:03.7	From the Pentagon to the State Department to spy agencies,
1:07.2	listen to understand what's really happening and what it means for you.
1:10.9	Sources and Methods, the new National Security podcast from NPR.
1:15.0	What's up, Chicago? I'm Erin Allen, and this is Curious City.
1:18.6	In our last episode, we heard about the two pilots who have landed small airplanes on Chicago's famous Lakeside Expressway, Dusabble Lakeshore Drive. Both of them were
1:29.5	facing critical emergencies that forced their hands. And one of those pilots was John Ginley.
1:36.3	Midway Tower, Aircoop 99055, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. We wanted to hear more about how John avoided imminent disaster.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WBEZ Chicago, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WBEZ Chicago and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.