Police: Employee Intentionally Set Fire At Chicago Air Traffic Site

This photo from video provided courtesy of WMAQ-TV in Chicago shows air travelers wheeling their luggage toward Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Tuesday, July 1, 2014, after sudden rains flooded the Kennedy Exp... This photo from video provided courtesy of WMAQ-TV in Chicago shows air travelers wheeling their luggage toward Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Tuesday, July 1, 2014, after sudden rains flooded the Kennedy Expressway, a major thoroughfare that runs to the airport. Desperate travelers were forced to get out of taxis and haul their luggage the rest of the way to the airport. (AP Photo/Courtesy of WMAQ-TV Chicago) MORE LESS
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CHICAGO (AP) — A fire at a suburban Chicago air traffic control facility that shut down the city’s two airports Friday was intentionally set by a contract employee, police said.

The early morning fire forced the evacuation of the control center in Aurora, about 40 miles west of downtown Chicago. Emergency crews found a man in the basement with a self-inflicted wound and took him to a hospital.

The man was a contract employee of the Federal Aviation Administration, said Aurora Police Chief Gregory Thomas. He said it was not a terrorist act and that the investigation was being run by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local police and fire departments.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. Boy, I feel sorry for anyone stranded there right now. Going to take days to return to normal.

  2. Ground stop appears to be over. I heard a couple of planes approaching O’Hare to land about 10 minutes ago.

  3. I know the Cubs lose a lot, but that’s really no reason.

  4. A friend of mine left my place this morning at 5 am to catch a flight at O’Hare, where he still is. Flight has been cancelled, tomorrow everything is already booked, and Sunday looks problematic. One little fire 40 miles away…

  5. “He said it was not a terrorist act . . .”

    Maybe not in the traditional IRA or Al-Qaeda sense, but it still caused massive disruptions of the nation’s air travel.

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