Smile Politely

22 years ago, President Clinton got stuck in the mud

Julie McClure

With all this impeachment hullabaloo in the news, the ghosts of news cycles past are in the air. I mean, Ken Starr was on our TV screens yesterday and everything. 

Back in 1998, on this very day, President Bill Clinton visited the University of Illinois. It was his first trip outside of Washington after the news of his involvement with Monica Lewinsky broke, and he drew a huge crowd at the Assembly Hall. 

As Air Force One began its departure out of Willard Airport, the plane veered off the tarmac and got a wheel stuck in the mud. It was a rather benign event for a plane, but since it involved the President, of course it made national news. 

Here’s a rather entertaining video of the event, from Flightstar’s YouTube channel:

Top image: A slightly blurry screen shot of a news clip. It shows a plane in the distance. There is a field and runway in the foreground. There appears to be several people standing around the base of the plane. The chyron at the bottom has a WCIA 3 logo, a red square with a white three, and says Willard Airport, Savoy. Screen shot from Flightstar YouTube video.
 

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