Harris employee. Fired now Jaime Solorza On Sep 29, 2014 3:36 PM, "Forrest Christian (List Account) via Af" < af@afmug.com> wrote:
> Oh yeah, > > I'm in Chicago for a few days. Flew in on thursday before this > happened. My wife flew in on Saturday and ended up with a nasty delay in > MSP since there were very very few flights flying into the affected area, > which basically includes both chicago airports, and the two airports up in > wisconsin. Thousands of flights cancelled over the last couple of days. > > That's the big news here. > > -forrest > > On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Eric Kuhnke via Af <af@afmug.com> wrote: > >> Anyone see this? >> >> >> http://posttrib.suntimes.com/30167722-537/flight-delays-to-continue-after-arson.html#.VCnNuOeXtGE >> >> >> http://www.metafilter.com/143174/ATCSCC-ADVZY-020-DCC-ZAU-09-26-2014-ZAU-GROUND-STOP >> >> >> >> On Friday, ATCSCC Advisory 20 of 26-Sep-2014 went out. When operators, >> controllers and airport managers saw the title, a gasp of disbelief was >> heard. The problem was simple enough to state in three words, and complex >> enough to cancel thousand of flights and cost hundred of millions of >> dollars: ZAU ATC ZERO >> <http://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_otherdis.jsp?advn=20&adv_date=09262014&facId=DCC/ZAU&title=ZAU+GROUND+STOP&titleDate=09/26/14> >> . >> >> ZAU >> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Air_Route_Traffic_Control_Center> >> is the call sign of the Chicago Air Rout Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), >> which covers <http://www.fly.faa.gov/Information/west/zau/zau.htm> >> northern Illinois and Indiana, southern Wisconsin, western Iowa, and south >> eastern Michigan. There are two "sides" at an ARTCC. ZAU-LO handed traffic >> destined for airports in the covered area, ZAU-HI handled traffic >> overflying. Both were amongst the busiest in the country. ZAU-HI was busy >> with traffic from the east to west, as well as European traffic heading to >> Houston and Dallas-FW, ZAU-LO had to feed in traffic from airports like >> GYY <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary/Chicago_International_Airport>, >> MKE <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mitchell_International_Airport>, >> RFD <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Rockford_International_Airport>, >> PIA >> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Wayne_A._Downing_Peoria_International_Airport>, >> and the two busiest airports in the area; Chicago Midway International >> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Midway_International_Airport> and >> O'Hare >> International >> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Hare_International_Airport>, one of >> the busiest airports in the world. >> >> On Friday morning, Brian Howard, a contract employee of the FAA and >> holding full credentials to the ZAU datacenters, set a fire in the telecom >> room, destroying 23 of the 29 >> <http://posttrib.suntimes.com/30167722-537/flight-delays-to-continue-after-arson.html> >> rack and disconnecting all the controller stations from the associated >> radars and radio transmitters needed to watch and guide traffic through the >> busy sector. As the consoles dropped offline, the ZAU duty manager had no >> choice -- they called ZZZ, the FAA command center >> <http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp> and reported ATC ZERO -- no >> controllers available, control center offline. >> > >
