Fire at Air Control Facility Halts Chicago Flights

(AFP) — Air traffic was temporarily halted at two major airports in Chicago early Friday, after a fire broke out at a radar facility run by the Federal Aviation Authority, officials said.

Dozens of flights into and out of the city’s bustling O’Hare and Midway airports were cancelled, as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze at the FAA’s facility in the town of Aurora.

Local news reports said authorities suspect arson as the cause of the fire.

Local news reports said officials arriving at the site found an adult male suffering from an apparent self-inflicted wounds. The man is being treated at an area hospital, reports said.

Officials said the fire, which erupted shortly before dawn, has been extinguished and an investigation launched.

Authorities said operations at the FAA’s Aurora center, which is responsible for guiding high-altitude air traffic into and out of Chicago’s airports, would be taken over by other air traffic sites in the region.

O’Hare, the second-largest airport in the United States, carries more than 15 million passengers each year.