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Within minutes, radar feeds, flight plans and other data controllers rely on to direct more than 6,000 aircraft a day above five U.S. states had vanished as a fire was being set in a communications room one floor below. The attack was thorough and carried out by someone who knew the system intimately -- down to removing steel sheathing on data cables to destroy them, according to three people with knowledge of the incident.

Fire, Apparent Suicide Attempt At FAA Center Snarl Air Traffic By Jason Hanna and Thom Patterson, CNN September 26, 2014 (CNN) -- A contract employee at a Chicago-area air traffic control center apparently set a fire and tried to kill himself, officials said Friday, shutting the facility and stopping all flights at the world's second-busiest airport. The bizarre situation has resulted in a "ground stop," triggering the cancellation of more than 700 flights at O'Hare International Airport and more than 150 at nearby Midway Airport, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. The employee was being treated after suffering self-inflicted...

Flights at both Chicago airports have been halted Friday morning, due to a fire at Federal Aviation Administration radar facility in Aurora. Emergency crews found a man with self-inflicted wounds while putting out the fire. A ground stop was in place at O’Hare International and Midway International airports as a result of the fire. Flights headed into both airports were being diverted to other airports, while flights departing the airports were being delayed. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said fire investigators were at the scene, as part of the DuPage County Fire Investigation task force. Aurora...

Flights are slowly resuming at O’Hare Airport after a fire at an FAA air traffic control center in Aurora forced a complete halt to flights in and out of O’Hare and Midway Airports. Hundreds of flights are cancelled at O’Hare, and that’s put thousands of travelers in long lines to re-book their trips. Some people stuck in Terminal 3 waited in line for at least one hour to reschedule their flights. Some travelers didn’t receive any notification about the cancellations and delays, and were shocked when they arrived at O’Hare and saw the long lines. Some people got alerts too...

Whether it is Nairobi, Dubai or London, a major airport is the heart to an economy -- especially one dependent on exports and tourism. Kenya is dependent on both, after it worked over the last decade to become, in particular, a major tea and flower exporter. A third of all flowers in Europe come from Kenya... ... Al-Shabaab militants have crossed over the border into Kenya from Somalia and Nairobi has tried to take a tough line in its counter-terror efforts. The lead-up to the presidential election provided its own element of uncertainty and violence, not entirely unusual on the...

Amsterdam Airport Fire Kills 11 AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A fire roared through a prison complex at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Thursday, killing 11 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation and injuring 15 other people, authorities said. The nationalities of the dead were not immediately known. "They were illegal aliens waiting to be extradited to their countries of origin," said Immigration Service spokesman Martin Bruinsma. "We are still busy trying to confirm their identities." The prison block on the east side of Europe's fourth largest airport is surrounded by a 10-foot fence and barbed wire. Set up in 2002, it is used to...

At least 10 people have died, and 15 are injured and in hospital, after a fire set buildings ablaze at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. The blaze broke out soon after midnight in a detention centre at the airport, the main air hub of the Netherlands. The Dutch news agency ANP reported that it was not contained for several hours, and said the death toll could rise. The building where the fire started houses people who are awaiting deportation from the Netherlands.