Whatever the guy’s motives, the facility he took down was a major cog in the ATC system. Chicago is a major hub, O’Hare is one of the busiest airports in the world. A hiccup there affects flights nationwide. Not just stranded passengers, but aircraft and aircrew that aren’t where they’re needed to be elsewhere in the country. Thus people can’t get a flight to Dallas because the planes and crews are stuck somewhere that doesn’t connect.
I know it controls the airspace for 5 states and my kid was on one of the flights that was delayed for hours and he was on a flight that just flew through the airspace.
Redundancy can be good in safety systems and something seems off here. Sure, I understand the cause and effect. It happens all the time with weather or airplane issues causing delays and missed flights. This ought to be a HUGE RED FLAG that our air traffic can be so disrupted by one act.