O'Hare Airport Fire in Chicago Has Created the Biggest Air Traffic Snarl Since 9/11: FAA

It is amazing how one small fire at Chicago's O'Hare Airport has tangled flights for days.

The Federal Aviation Administration has already declared it the biggest traffic snarl since 9/11 and hopes that by Oct. 13 everything will be back on schedule. Apparently, out of 29 racks of equipment, 20 will need to be replaced and other control centers have handled Chicago's flights for days now.

Last Friday, Brian Howard, a contract employee, allegedly set a fire in the basement of O'Hare's control center. He also tried to kill himself and was in the process of slitting his own throat when authorities arrived and intervened.

Howard had worked at the facility for eight years and was apparently disgruntled by an upcoming transfer to Hawaii. He was later charged with one count of destruction of an aircraft or an aircraft facility and, if found guilty, could potentially serve 20 years in prison.

Michael Huerta, an FAA administrator, believes this case and the travel disaster it has caused for days will mean the organization has to re-evaluate things.

"If we need to make changes as a result of what happened on Friday to improve the system, we will not hesitate to do so. We need to be looking at everything ... from the people that we employ through our contractors, all the way through all the processes that we use — how they have access to our facilities and what kind of monitoring takes place within those facilities. That's all on the table," said Huerta.

In the meantime, the FAA claims that teams are working around the clock to try and repair problems as well as transmit data to other control towers manually. It's clearly a tedious process, and unfortunately stranded travelers are suffering the most because of it.

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