Dennis McCormack of Rockaway N.J. checks the departure board only to find out that his flight to Newark N.J. has been canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Friday Sept. 26 2014.(Photo Paul Beaty AP)
TagsFederal Aviation AdministrationA Federal Aviation Administration clean up crew spent Saturday drying out water damaged equipment at an Illinois air traffic control center shut down after a fire and attempted suicide there Friday.
More than 1 000 flights had been canceled nationwide as of 2 10 p.m. ET Saturday as disruptions resulting from the fire.
FAA handled 40% of normal daily traffic at O'Hare on Friday but expects to continue to increase the traffic flow at those two airports over the weekend the agency said in a release Saturday.
Like Friday Chicago's busy O'Hare and Midway airports were among the hardest hit though delays and cancellations were affecting numerous airports across the Midwest.
FLIGHT TRACKER Is your flight on time MORE FAA contractor charged with fire that halted flights
As of 2 p.m. ET nearly 650 flights had been canceled at Chicago O'Hare and another 500 delayed according to flight tracking service FlightAware. The cancellations represent about a third of the entire Saturday schedule at the airport.
At Chicago Midway about 115 flights had been canceled more than 20% of the day's schedule and another 125 delayed.
Authorities say the fire started due to an alleged act of employee sabotage at a large regional air traffic control center in Aurora Ill.. The blaze quickly brought Chicago's two international airports to a halt.
Southwest by far the biggest carrier at Midway had initially anticipated a normal schedule on Saturday but hinted on Saturday morning that lingering air traffic control issues were affecting its operations there and in Milwaukee.
In close coordination with Air Traffic Control our dispatchers report airspace restrictions will continue throughout the day and additional delays and cancellations today could continue as we work hard together to operate as many scheduled flights as allowed the carrier said in a Saturday morning statement.
Saturday's problems in Chicago in the Midwest come after massive disruptions on Friday that resulted from the fire at the FAA facility. More than 2 300 flights were canceled nationwide including more than 1 300 at Chicago O'Hare close to half that airport's daily schedule and more than 450 at Midway where that total accounted for more than two thirds of the day's flights there.
FAA sent air traffic controllers who would normally have worked at the Aurora air traffic control center to the Chicago Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) in Elgin IL and other air traffic facilities to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic.
The agency said it was managing the air traffic flows in and out of Chicago through other large facilities in Illinois Indiana and Wisconsin with additional help from high altitude centers in Minnesota Kansas Indiana and Ohio.
TWITTER You can follow me at twitter.com/TodayInTheSky
No comments:
Post a Comment