Flights slowly resume after Chicago arson disrupts air travel across the U.S.

Flights are beginning to resume after a fire at a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar center halted almost 1,500 flights in Chicago and across the Midwest, causing delays and cancelled flights across the nation. Officials said the fire in the basement of the FAA facility located outside Chicago in Aurora was deliberately set by an employee who tried to commit suicide. According to a federal complaint, 36-year-old Brian Howard had posted a message on his Facebook page saying he was going to “take out” the control center and kill himself. The complaint says Howard had worked as a contractor for about eight years and that he tried to set a fire in the basement, apparently using a gas can and towels. According to the Chicago Department of Aviation, employees at the FAA control center were evacuated around 6 a.m. Friday, after the fire broke out. Shortly after noon, almost 1,500 flights into and out of O’Hare International Airport and the domestic hub Midway had been canceled.

There’s cascading delays because nothing can take off bound for Chicago from anywhere. The impact is national and major.

Spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Doug Church

The shutdown quickly disrupted travel plans around the country, with airports as close as Milwaukee and as far as Dallas canceling flights. Online radar images showed a gaping hole in the nation’s air traffic map over the upper Midwest. Passengers already in the air who thought they were going to Chicago wound up in other cities such as Indianapolis and Cleveland. O’Hare sees a lot of traffic from United Airlines and American Airlines while Midway serves as a transit hub for Southwest Airlines. Between January and August, more than 580,000 flights departed or landed at O’Hare, the city of Chicago said, citing FAA data. Because both airports are major domestic and international travel hubs, grounded flights have a “cascading effect” on other airports.