More Details Emerge in Midway Airport Crash That Killed Retired DuPage Deputy

By AMIE SCHAENZER (Patch Staff)

Photo credit: Michael Yates obituary/Hultgren Funeral Home website

As the Federal Aviation Administration continues to investigate a crash at Midway Airport that killed a retired DuPage sheriff’s deputy, some more details emerged Monday regarding the accident, the Daily Herald reports.

Michael Yates, who was born in Elmhurst and grew up in Glen Ellyn, died Saturday morning in a “freakish accident” involving two luggage vehicles that collided at Midway Airport. The 52-year-old Carol Stream man was working at his job as a luggage handler at Chicago’s Midway International Airport when the accident occurred.

• Read More: Funeral Services Set for Michael Yates

The Daily Herald reports Yates was not wearing a seatbelt while driving a luggage cart at Midway when he collided with a trailer being pulled behind another vehicle. The other driver was not injured in the accident and was wearing a seatbelt.

Both drivers appeared to swerve to try and avoid the crash just before the accident occurred, according to the newspaper.

Yates spent 28 years as a deputy in DuPage County where he worked as a detective, officer on the street and a sniper on the SWAT team, according to his obituary.

The job at Midway “was supposed to be his retirement gig,” his wife, Beth Mitchell Yates, said.

“Maybe I wouldn’t be so shocked today if this hadn’t happened on his other job,” Yates said of her husband in his obituary.

The Daily Herald has more information regarding this story on its website