Fire Grounds Flights at Chicago Airports

Flights were halted at Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports early Sept. 26 after a fire and evacuation in the region’s air traffic control in Aurora, Ill., at about 5:40 a.m. The shutdown had the potential to disrupt air travel in the country.

The FAA facility was evacuated. Upon arriving at the control center in Aurora, a city about 40 miles southwest of O’Hare, authorities found a man in the basement with “self-inflicted, non-gunshot wounds,” the Chicago Tribune reported. The fire was deliberately set but not a terrorist incident, the newspaper said, quoting the Aurora police chief, who said the incident involves a local contractor.

The FAA said flight operations are being handled by other adjacent air traffic facilities, spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said.

Initially, flights were halted until 8 a.m. at O’Hare, although cancellations appeared to continue after that. At Midway, dominant carrier Southwest Airlines cancelled flights at least until noon, the Tribune reported.

FlightAware, a website that tracks air traffic, reported that there were 818 cancellations at O'Hare International by 10 a.m. Central time and 258 at Midway.

[readon1 url="http://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/fire-grounds-flights-at-chicago-airports.html"]Source:www.travelpulse.com[/readon1]