Update on Chicago Air Traffic Shutdown: Center Could Be Off LIne for Months

An EPJ reader, who is getting some updates on this: Navy Veteran Sets Fire to Chicago Air Traffic Control Facility, emails:

The info we got stated that the fire was set in the communications room, at Aurora, Illinois (Chicago ARTCC, a.k.a., Chicago Center), where all incoming and outgoing flight plan information is processed, essentially cutting off the ability to communicate with other facility’s computers.

The damage was such that we heard that it is initially estimated that ZAU (Chicago Center) could be offline for months to repair the damage. We heard possible plans of relocating ZAU controllers to neighboring Centers (Minneapolis, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Cleveland), and having them work their airspace from there. That would take a few days at best, probably a couple of weeks before the kinks were ironed out.

None of this is official, just what we were hearing as information came in.