Suspect in September arson charged

It’s hard to imagine that last September, air traffic was snarled due to a fire at the Chicago Air Traffic Control Center. Now, the lone suspect in the case has been formally charged.

The September 26, 2014 fire cancelled thousands of flights across the country. Not only did it affect consumer travel, but it also affected the Valparaiso University football team’s chartered flight to North Carolina. Instead of flying out of Chicago, the fire forced the team to return to the university and wait for a flight out of South Bend Regional Airport.

The fire started in the early morning hours and quickly began crippling air traffic throughout the Midwest. While no one was hurt, one employee was treated for smoke inhalation.

At about 5 a.m., Brian Howard carried a black Pelican suitcase into the Air Traffic Control Center, say federal prosecutors. About 30 minutes after he arrived, Howard posted a message to his Facebook saying that he took a hard look in the mirror and that is why he took out the center and tried to also take his life. He told April and Pop that he loved them and he was sorry for leaving the big mess.

Workers discovered the fire several minutes later. Amid the dense smoke, emergency personnel found that a floor panel was lifted, exposing telecommunications cables, some of which had been severed and set on fire.

Howard, who was a contract worker at the Chicago Air Traffic Control Center, has been formally charged with one count of willfully setting fire to, damaging, destroying, or disabling an air navigation facility and one count of setting fire to commit a federal felony.

The fire cost the airline industry an estimated $350 million as more than 5,000 flights out of Chicago O’Hare and Chicago Midway International Airports were cancelled in the wake of the fire. Controllers from neighboring states pitched in while the Chicago Air Traffic Control Center was repaired.

The Federal Aviation Administration has asked for $8.8 million from Congress to improve FAA security. The FAA is also trying to organize communications and training to handle approximately 90% of flights within 24 hours of a catastrophic outage instead of the several days it took last September.

If convicted, Howard faces 20-30 years in prison. He also faces a fine of $250,000, or twice the amount in damage caused by the fire.

The charge of using fire to commit a federal felony carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Howard’s attorney, Ron Safer, says that Howard has “always accepted responsibility for his conduct” and they believe the charges are fair.