{"id":10189,"date":"2014-05-15T12:23:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T04:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=10189"},"modified":"2014-05-15T12:25:11","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T04:25:11","slug":"hundreds-of-flights-cancelled-in-chicago-after-electrical-issue-smoke-at-air-traffic-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/15\/hundreds-of-flights-cancelled-in-chicago-after-electrical-issue-smoke-at-air-traffic-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of flights cancelled in Chicago after electrical issue, smoke at air traffic facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

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CHICAGO – About 700 flights were cancelled Tuesday at Chicago’s two airports after an electrical problem sent smoke into the control room of a regional radar facility, forcing officials to temporarily halt all air traffic at one of the nation’s busiest aviation crossroads.<\/p>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration said all personnel were evacuated from the radar facility in suburban Elgin around 11:30 a.m. They were allowed to return about three hours later.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Department of Aviation said a limited number of landings and departures had resumed by late afternoon.<\/p>\n

Elgin Fire Capt. Anthony Bialek said a bathroom exhaust fan in a ceiling overheated and melted insulation on some wires, and smoke was pushed through the facility’s ventilation system and into the control room.<\/p>\n

Bialek said it took about an hour to find the source of the smoke at Chicago Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON. There were no injuries.<\/p>\n

Controllers at the TRACON facility are responsible for managing the region’s air traffic as it leaves and approaches all of the area’s airports. Once an aircraft is within about 5 miles of an airport, TRACON workers hand over control to that airport’s tower.<\/p>\n

Inbound flights already in the area at the start of the shutdown were handled by a backup air traffic facility in the city of Aurora, just west of Chicago. Some flights were diverted to other airports.<\/p>\n

Aerial TV footage Tuesday afternoon showed a large backup of aircraft along taxiways at O’Hare International Airport. Inside the terminals, people trying to rebook on later flights formed long lines.<\/p>\n

David Winter of Sarasota, Florida, said he and his wife, Denise, would stay overnight in Chicago after their flight was cancelled.<\/p>\n

“My wife hates to fly … so she literally asked me if we could rent a car and drive,” Winter said, adding that they ruled it out and were rebooked on a Wednesday flight.<\/p>\n

Instead, the retired couple stopped off at an airport cocktail lounge.<\/p>\n

“So, obviously, we’re not in dire straits,” he said.<\/p>\n

As of about 3:30 p.m., arrivals at O’Hare were about 75 per cent of normal _ 72 an hour compared with the normal of about 106 per hour, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents controllers. Departures were operating normally, he said.<\/p>\n

O’Hare is the second-busiest airport in the country by numbers of passengers and is a major hub. Around half of passengers there are connecting to other flights.<\/p>\n

Any disruption to its operations has an enormous ripple effect on the nation’s aviation system.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Aviation Department said more than 600 flights were cancelled at O’Hare and 75 at Midway International Airport.<\/p>\n

A computer glitch at a similar facility last month forced a 45-minute shutdown at Los Angeles International Airport.<\/p>\n

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