Chicago area man who drowned trying to help children had survived 9/11 attacks

WINNETKA, Ill. (AP) — The family of a suburban Chicago man who drowned in Lake Michigan while trying to help children struggling in the lake says he was a survivor of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Witnesses say 43-year-old Luke Laidley was boating Tuesday with others on the lakefront north of Chicago when he jumped into the lake to help at least one child who had fallen off a raft being pulled by the boat. The Winnetka man went underwater and later died at a hospital. His obituary says he was 21 and working at Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center’s South Tower when it was struck by a hijacked plane on 9/11.