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Semi With Expensive Jet Turbine, Plane Parts Disappears From O'Hare Airport

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A missing semi with very expensive plane parts inside vanished, apparently taken from a secure area at O'Hare Airport.

CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports, sources said police have been looking for the driver of the truck and want to question him.

There is a surveillance image of the truck reported missing by PFH Air LLC. The Lake in the Hills company hauls general freight and does interstate transportation.

The truck was taken from a secure area on West O'Hare Avenue at the airport on Sept. 17. It was last spotted near Washington and Kilbourn on Chicago's West Side.

Sources said the truck trailer was carrying aircraft parts, among them a jet turbine valued at $1 million.

"Global aviation is huge. Parts move around the world. You have developing countries where there is big demand for parts for repair," said Joe Schwieterman of DePaul University. "No doubt some of these parts could be traced. They may not be sellable, but there are certain things that could command big bucks."

Schwieterman added, "To have the truck leave the scene without trace, so to speak, with parts that may be worth millions of dollars in that truck, really is the remarkable disturbing story on what can happen if we have not proper security of who's operating the trucks."

While an executive with the trucking company said the driver, truck and cargo have been found, Chicago police said they have no record of that.

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