Frank Main
Chicago Sun Times

It was a bone-chilling day on Jan. 30, 1980, when a plane carrying Kellogg Co. executives flew off the runway at Meigs Field and crashed into Lake Michigan.

John Kerechek, a longtime pilot of the Chicago Fire Department's helicopter, jumped into action. He hovered over the tail of the partially sunken plane as his partner, Charles Tannehill, tossed a life raft to several survivors.

Then Tannehill plunged into the frigid water to save another passenger.

"John had to land on the water to get me," Tannehill said. "He saved me, too."

Mr. Kerechek, one of the most highly decorated members of the Chicago Fire Department, died Dec. 24 at his winter home in Mesa, Ariz. He was 83.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Kerechek won two Lambert Tree awards -- the highest honor bestowed on a firefighter by the city -- for other daring helicopter rescues of plane crash victims in Lake Michigan.

Mr. Kerechek, who had a second home in northwest suburban Huntley, held the rank of battalion chief when he retired in the late 1980s.

Tannehill's brother George Tannehill was commander of the helicopter unit and Mr. Kerechek was No. 2.

George Tannehill recalled forming the unit with Mr. Kerechek in 1965. "We started out of Midway, then moved to Meigs Field," he said.

Mr. Kerechek could fly everything from fixed-wing aircraft to helicopters, Charles Tannehill said.

"He's probably one of the most highly decorated firefighters in the city's history," Charles Tannehill said. "But he never bragged about anything."

In addition to instructing Fire Department pilots, Mr. Kerechek trained many of the pilots in the Chicago Police Department's helicopter unit, too, Charles Tannehill said.

A daughter, Leslie Koch-Sobczak of Plainfield, said her son Jeremy Koch followed Mr. Kerechek's footsteps into the Chicago Fire Department.

"Dad was his role model," she said. "Jeremy jumps from the helicopter into the water. He is a scuba diver for the Air Sea Rescue unit."

She recalls her father getting his photo taken with the late Mayor Richard J. Daley when Mr. Kerechek won one of his awards.

"I knew he was a hero," she said. "I was proud of him. But he always said he was just a man doing his job."

In retirement, Mr. Kerechek enjoyed golfing and bowling.

Mr. Kerechek also is survived by his wife, Elaine; two sons, John Kerechek of Cincinnati and Kenneth Kerechek of Tucson, Ariz.; and another daughter, Doreen Adams of Geneva.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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December 28, 2009