The FAA plans to restore its Chicago air route traffic control center (Artcc) to normal operation by October 13 following a fire that damaged the facility’s communications equipment and led to the disruption and cancellation of thousands of flights. The agency has also tasked its Air Traffic Organization (ATO) and unions to review contingency plans for major facilities in the wake of the September 26 fire, which was allegedly set by a disgruntled contract worker.
As of September 29, the FAA said that it was processing more than 80 percent of the average Monday traffic at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and more than 90 percent of the average traffic at Chicago Midway, the two airports immediately affected by the fire. In a keynote speech the same day at the Air Traffic Control Association (Atca) conference in National Harbor, Md., FAA Administrator Michael Huerta described the agency’s reaction to the fire and announced the 30-day facilities review. “We always have redundancy built into everything we do,” Huerta said. “On Friday morning we activated our contingency plan, which is why we have been able to keep air traffic moving, despite the loss of capability at Chicago center.”
The Chicago Artcc, located in Aurora, Ill., controls high-altitude traffic over five states, an area encompassing hundreds of airports. After the fire knocked out communications, the FAA transferred control of traffic at 18,000 feet and above to en route centers in Minneapolis, Kansas City, Cleveland and Indianapolis. Those centers sent transcontinental flights at cruising altitude around Chicago airspace entirely. The centers funneled lower level traffic to 19 terminal radar approach control facilities, which increased their control responsibility from about 10,000 feet to 17,000 feet.
The agency was working with Harris Corporation, the prime contractor of the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure system, to replace the damaged communications equipment. The worker who allegedly set fire to the equipment was a Harris employee, according to media reports.
The FAA will conduct the facilities review in collaboration with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists unions. “Over the next 30 days we’re going to review our contingency and our security protocols to ensure that the preparedness and the continuity of our air traffic services are appropriate during a crisis like this,” ATO COO Teri Bristol said in a separate address at the Atca conference.
Bristol said the FAA is “holding multiple telecons” with air carriers to alleviate disruptions. “I would say that our approach has been very collaborative working with the carriers,” she said. “We put out our plans, we actually talk about it with them and we ask them for feedback. We adjusted over the weekend, in fact. We were looking at maybe doing a ground-delay program and they actually pushed back and they bought into using the flow program.”
Bristol is relatively new to the job; she took over as ATO leader in March. “Our leadership team and I have been closely involved throughout the weekend and today to ensure that the cleanup and the system restoration efforts are going well,” she said. “It’s been a very long four days.”
