image: NATCA
The FAA has fully restored air traffic operations at the Chicago En Route Center in Aurora, Illinois, the agency said on Monday. A full shift of air traffic controllers returned to Chicago Center Sunday night and resumed duties at their normal positions for the first time in more than two weeks. During the outage, which began on Sept. 26 when a fire was deliberately set at the facility, nearly 200 staffers traveled to other ATC facilities. All of those staffers were expected to return to their posts in Aurora on Monday. “I’m proud of the team effort,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The [Transportation] Department and the FAA are committed to learning from this event.” The agency is conducting a 30-day review of contingency plans and security protocols for its major facilities.Foxx said the report will be made public.
FAA technical teams had restored all the critical systems and equipment at the center by Sunday night, and air traffic controllers resumed control of the center’s airspace from adjoining centers between midnight and 1 a.m. The FAA said its technical teams worked around the clock to restore and test more than 20 racks of equipment, 835 telecommunications circuits andmore than 10 miles of cable.FAA test-flight pilots based in Oklahoma City helped air traffic controllers test more than 100 radio frequencies they use to communicate with pilots.The FAA’s Command Center in Warrenton, Virginia, worked closely with the airlines that serve the Chicago-area airports to minimize disruptions for travelers and maximize the number of flights arriving and departing at those airports.”The scope and timeline of the restoration and recovery process following the fire at Chicago Center was unprecedented,” the FAA said.
