Florida attorney Howard Berman is proof-positive that anyone can revel in the luck of the Irish.
Berman’s garment bag — stuffed with University of Notre Dame sweaters, a vintage school jacket, Notre Dame drinking cups and other trinkets — was recovered from a Chicago-area rail yard after it slid out the open cargo door of an airliner that departed from Midway on Sunday.
Berman was aboard the Atlanta-bound flight after watching the USC Trojans’ 38-0 trouncing of the Fighting Irish in South Bend, Ind.
On Tuesday, Berman was back in Florida, reunited with the charmed garment bag, which survived the plunge intact.
“The fasteners and plastic luggage tag were broken, and things inside were a bit smashed, but all the stuff was there,” Berman said.
Family members raised concerns that someone on the ground could have been struck by the free-falling luggage. But Berman said he wasn’t worried, pointing to Notre Dame’s abysmal 1-7 season so far.
“It’s Notre Dame,” he said. “It can’t hurt anybody because it can’t hit anybody.”
Patrick Telan, a litigation attorney from Orlando, hasn’t been as lucky. His daughter’s duffel bag containing a much-loved American Girl doll, fell out of the plane and hasn’t been found.
The collectable doll, a Hispanic girl named Marisol Luna, is no longer in production.
“My little girl is devastated by this loss,” Telan said of his daughter, Abby Ann.
Telan said some passengers began to panic and that about 20 minutes passed before the flight’s captain announced that a sensor in the cockpit was indicating a pressurization problem.
A spokesman for Atlantic Southeast said the plane was deemed airworthy to fly when it pushed back from the gate, despite being deferred for maintenance on a problem with the cargo-door indicator light.
