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Flights were halted at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports early Sept. 26 after a fire and evacuation in the region's air traffic control in Aurora, Ill., at about 5:40 a.m. The shutdown had the potential to disrupt air travel in the country. Flights began slowly operating again at about 10 a.m. Central time, but thousands of people stood in long lines at both airports to try to rearrange flights. Some gave up and booked hotel rooms to wait out the disruption while others rented cars to drive to their destinations.
The FAA facility was evacuated. Upon arriving at the control center in Aurora, a city about 40 miles southwest of O'Hare, authorities found a man in the basement with "self-inflicted, non-gunshot wounds," the Chicago Tribune reported. The fire was deliberately set but not a terrorist incident, the newspaper reported, quoting the Aurora police chief, who said the incident involves a local contract worker who was not an FAA employee. The CBS TV station in Chicago said the alleged perpetrator suffered burns and stab wounds and was hospitalized.
The FAA said flight operations are being handled by other adjacent air traffic facilities, spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said.
Initially, flights were halted until 8 a.m. at O'Hare, although cancellations appeared to continue after that. At Midway, dominant carrier Southwest Airlines cancelled flights at least until 7 p.m., according to local TV news reports.
FlightAware, a website that tracks air traffic, reported that there were 818 cancellations at O'Hare International by 10 a.m. Central time and 258 at Midway.
This story will be updated throughout the day as we learn more.
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