Thursday marks 50 years since United Airlines Flight 553 crash at Midway Airport killed 45

CHICAGO — Thursday marks 50 years since a United Airlines Flight 553 crashed on approach to Midway Airport, slamming into a Chicago neighborhood just southeast of the airport.

The Boeing 737 crashed into several homes near 70th Place and Lawndale Avenue as well as neighboring streets.

Forty three of the 61 passengers on board the plane died. Two others died on the ground.

Among the dead were Congressman George Collins and Dorothy Hunt, the wife of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt. Hunt was carrying $10,000 in $100 bills at the time of the crash, spawning conspiracy theories that the money was connected to Watergate and that the plane was sabotaged.

The homes in that area have all been rebuilt in the half century since the tragedy.