Some flights are arriving and departing from Chicago "at a reduced rate" after a fire deliberately set at an FAA radar center grounded more than a thousand planes in Chicago and across the country, police and FAA officials said.
"Flights that were already in the air destined to the Chicago area were allowed to continue at a reduced rate or proceed to an alternate destination,'' the FAA said at 10:30 a.m. "Flights have begun arriving and departing to and from the Chicago area at a reduced rate."
The small fire in the basement of the Aurora facility was apparently set by a man who was found with self-inflicted wounds by emergency crews who responded around 5:40 a.m., police said.
The man suffered burns and had cuts on his hands and arms, according to Tom Ahern, spokesman for the Chicago office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Ahern said the man apparently used gasoline to start the fire. While a motive was still not clear, he said early indications were that he was "possibly a disgruntled employee."
"Whatever his motivations were is yet to be determined," Ahern said. "We just don't know at this point why he may have done this"
The man was taken to a hospital, and the center was closed and 15-30 people were evacuated. One employee, a man about 50 years old, was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
"There was no explosion and, like any similar scene, first responders are being cautious as they clear the building and continue to make it safe," Aurora police said in a statement at 11 a.m. "This apparently is an isolated incident and there are no indications of terrorism at this time."
Police said the man is a contractor, not an air traffic controller or FAA manager.
"We understand that this is a local issue with a contract employee and nothing else," Aurora Police Chief Gregory Thomas told reporters. "There is no terrorist act."
A controller who was working in the facility said the radio frequencies went dead, apparently due to the fire, and that the air traffic control system was immediately shifted to back-up equipment. The controller said air traffic operations continued for a short time using the back-up system until the evacuation order was issued.
"The (radio) frequency failed,'' the controller said. "Depending on how bad the fire was, it could be a real mess getting things back to normal.''
A groundstop was ordered halting all flights in and out of O'Hare and Midway airports. As of noon, more than 1,300 flights were canceled at the airports and nearly 700 were delayed. Southwest Airlines said it has canceled all flights at Midway, as well as General Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, until at least 7 p.m.
Flights already in the air were handed off to other air traffic control centers. "Airspace management has been transferred to adjacent air traffic facilities," said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory.
As the groundstop is lifted, it will take a long time for the airlines to catch up. Passengers whose flights were canceled will be put on wait lists for later flights, but with the mostly full planes that the airlines are operating it will be difficult to accommodate the overflow.
The Aurora radar facility, called Chicago Center, is an en route air-traffic facility that handles high-altitude traffic across parts of the Midwest.
Controllers at the center direct planes through the airspace and either hand off the air traffic to other similar facilities handling high-altitude traffic in the U.S., or direct the planes to terminal radar facilities, including one in Elgin, which in turn direct planes to and from airport towers.
Several hundred people waited hours in lines to check in or reschedule their flights at O'Hare International Airport while airline employees passed out water to accommodate travelers.
Air National Guard members Jeff Boyden and Rob Combs, who were in Chicago for training, were to return to Omaha, Neb., this morning but learned on their way from their hotel that they might have trouble getting there.
"I was in the lobby at about 6:30 a.m. when I first heard about the fire and some flights were cancelled," Boyden said. "When we got there and checked in, our flight was still on time, then everything went red: cancelled, cancelled, cancelled."
The two were uncertain about their chances of making a flight Friday, so they decided to hitch a ride with friends who were driving back to Omaha from Chicago instead.
"We were on standby for one and that got canceled and there was another at 7:45 p.m., but we said 'No, let's just get a ride home.'"
First, they had to wait with dozens of people to get their luggage.
"I guess what I'm more amazed by is, you shut down one center and this is what happens," Boyden said. "It concerns me because what type of message does that send for someone who might want to shut down two airports?"
Elena Doyle, 44, of Oak Park was expecting to leave O'Hare with her husband and two children on her way to San Francisco for a relative's wedding Saturday morning. Instead, she found herself in line this morning with hundreds of people, hoping to reschedule after their morning flight was canceled.
"I'm going to be really disappointed if we missed the wedding tomorrow," Doyle said "My thought is we'll try to get away from Chicago and then we'll try to hook back to San Francisco."
Doyle, however, said she understands the airports' concern after the incident at the Aurora traffic control station.
While in line, Doyle tried to dial the toll free number for the airline, but the wait for the next representative was estimated at 2 hours.
Roger Richards of Chicago anxiously stood at the arrivals and departure board outside the Blue Line terminal this morning.
He thought his flight to Seattle might be in jeopardy but it was still listed as on time. "I'm one of the lucky ones," Richards said. "As I was on the Blue Line, I was concerned. I was checking CNN, NBC. All the news reports said flights were being canceled or held up."
Cassandra Dump, a 30-year-old publicist, was headed for a Central Park concert in New York featuring Jay Z, Sting and No Doubt when she got stranded at Midway.
She boarded the first plane she could get, only to be told by the flight crew that all planes had been grounded.
"Fifteen minutes later, they let us know we could get off the plane if we wanted. You could take your ID with you, grab coffee but stay near the gate area," she said. "Then about 10 minutes later, by 6:30, 6:45, we're completely off the plane, deplaned, because they didn't know what happened to the flight."
She paused while a message played over the airport PA system saying all planes out of the Southwest terminal had been canceled until at least noon.
She said there weren't too many irate people. "No one's too pissed, everyone's been up since 3 a.m. I think everyone's just tired."
Hundreds of people were in the terminal near her, she said, everyone waiting for announcements from the airlines.
Some websites haven't been able to keep up and still listed some flights as on time, she said.
Her plan was to find another way to New York. "I'm going to go online and see if I can re-book," she said. "I'm not going to miss (the concert). I'll walk to New York."
Jason Meisner contributed to this report