Every ATC facility within its airspace is digitally connected through FTI. The Harris-built system is the technical link that fuses the spokes on Chicago Center’s operational wheel. Telephone land lines still connected the facilities, but the severed FTI data streams reduced communication to nondigital platforms. Without an aircraft’s data block, they had no idea what flight they were watching or where it was going. “ was one of the team.” With Chicago Center’s vertebrae fractured, it did not take long for the paralysis to spread.Ĭontrollers in places like Moline, Peoria, Grand Rapids and South Bend could see only naked blips on their radarscopes. “None of us ever saw this coming,” Paulsen says. Howard pleaded guilty in May and remains in federal custody until his sentencing in September. The fire started where the primary and backup FTI systems converged. He also knew how to disable the numerous fail-safe procedures. He supervised its operation he installed its components. Howard intimately knew the Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure system. Spaghetti-snarled wires were charred and cut. Several computer racks were burned beyond recognition. The white ceiling was covered in black soot the fluorescent lights were melted. Paulsen stepped into the facility’s nerve center and stared. Thousands of cables stretched along the elevated ceiling and under the floor tiles. contractor, had started the fire and attempted to take his own life.ĭozens of computer racks resembling giant refrigerators lined the aisles. The door at the stairwell’s bottom led to the center’s “Automation Wing” basement, where Brian Howard, a Harris Corp. Acrid smoke remnants choked the cramped corridor. Red droplets trailed along the steps jagged streaks covered the walls. White booties paled against gore as they descended into the ashen gloom.īlood spattered the stairwell. The ATF and FBI agents accompanying him had ruled the area a crime scene. 26, Mike Paulsen, Chicago Center’s technical operations manager, adjusted his protective “bunny” suit. 11 suddenly didn’t seem so long ago.Īs the sun rose into the empty sky on Sept. He remembered a day when all air traffic stopped Sept. “I just didn’t know at the time what the situation was.” “I knew we were in a very serious situation,” Dewitte says. The lack of aircraft contrails accentuated the emptiness. Minutes could be an eternity in the air traffic world.ĭewitte looked up into brightening sky. He continued driving and then unholstered the phone. The parking lot was a few streets away it could probably wait. As Chicago Center’s air traffic manager, Cound leads the facility’s operation, controllers and 200 technical support personnel.Ĭound saw the center’s number appear on the display. The 32-year FAA veteran controlled traffic at Los Angeles Center before trading his headsets for ties and suit jackets. He then calmly walked out of the building and into the pre-dawn darkness.īill Cound’s Blackberry buzzed against his right hip. Smid took a final look at the deadened equipment his colleagues were already gone. Another controller’s voice had reached the aircraft’s cockpit. Spirit 656’s blip turned toward the Minneapolis International Airport. Just before his screen faded to blackness, Smid saw a welcome sight. He willed the flight crews to contact Minneapolis Center or another facility. It was horrible knowing the airmen were likely radioing him at that moment. Even if they couldn’t hear him, he was still watching. Smid continued standing in his work area abandoning the pilots wasn’t an option. The primary challenge is handling “transitions” - aircraft climbing and descending into the juggernaut of massive airports, Chicago O’Hare. ![]() Smid and 400 other controllers handle 6,300 aircraft per day transiting its massive airspace enveloping parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. Unlike airport control towers, Chicago Center and its counterparts in places like Minneapolis and Indianapolis are housed in nondescript buildings far from runways and taxiways.Ĭhicago Center (ZAU) is one of the world’s busiest ATC facilities. Smid had been a controller at the Aurora, Illinois, facility for the past 27 years. ![]() 26, 2014, and while Smid couldn’t see the sunrise from the dim control room at the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), blue sky waited at the end of his shift. Smid’s flat-panel display constantly changed. Aircraft climbed and descended others were at cruise altitude. The eraser-shaped images toted “data blocks” displaying flight number, destination, speed and altitude. It didn’t matter if the traffic was big or small. The circles moved in silence, but Smid never forgot that they embodied real aircraft. Air traffic controller Ray Smid watched the yellow blips slide across his radar screen.
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