CBS ChicagoCHICAGO (CBS) – Flights at both Chicago airports have been halted Friday morning, due to an apparent fire at an FAA radar facility in Aurora.
Aurora spokesman Dan Ferrelli said, at about 5:45 a.m., firefighters and police officers responded to reports of a fire in the basement of the FAA Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center at 619 Indian Trail Road.
Ferrelli said a man was found in the basement, suffering from self-inflicted wounds, though he had not been shot. The man was taken to an Aurora hospital for treatment. The fire has been extinguished.
Another employee at the facility was treated for smoke inhalation.
CBS 2’s Jeanette Hudson reports a ground stop was in place at O’Hare International and Midway International airports as a result of the fire. Flights headed into both airports were being diverted to other airports, while flights departing the airports were being delayed.
The city’s Department of Aviation said no flights would be allowed in or out of either airport until 8 a.m. at the earliest.
Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier at Midway, has suspended all flights until noon.
A representative for American Airlines said 102 flights had been canceled as of 8 a.m. Another 21 flights headed to Chicago had been diverted to other airports.
Airports in Wisconsin and Iowa also were being impacted by the fire at the radar facility.
FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said airspace management duties at the Auror radar center have been transferred to other air traffic facilities.
The facility in Aurora is home to some of the most sophisticated radar equipment in the nation, and is used to track flights that travel across parts of five states – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Controllers at the facility handle millions of flight operations a year, tracking flights, adjusting speed and altitude for planes, and keeping them at safe distances.
With no flights going in or out of either Chicago airport, the skies above northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and parts of Iowa, Indiana and Michigan were virtually empty, as seen in the radar image below from FlightAware.
Though no flames or smoke were visible from outside the building, six fire trucks and at least three ambulances responded to the building, along with several police vehicles. All employees have been evacuated from the facility.
Fire crews have been seen entering and exiting the building, but no fire hoses have been used on the exterior of the building.
This is the second time in four months that an emergency at an FAA radar facility has forced airlines to halt flights at Midway and O’Hare. In May, smoke at the TRACON facility in Elgin halted flights at the two airports for more than three hours. More than 1,000 flights were canceled at O’Hare, and another 120 were canceled at Midway. More than 1,400 other flights were delayed.
They were probably cooking meth.
“Ferrelli said a man was found in the basement, suffering from self-inflicted wounds, though he had not been shot.”
Must have been a firefighter that found him.
He WOULD have been shot if it was the cops.