CHICAGO – A fire at a suburban Chicago air traffic control facility that shut down the city’s two airports Friday was intentionally set by a contract employee, police said.
The early morning fire forced the evacuation of the control center in Aurora, about 40 miles west of downtown Chicago. Emergency crews found a man in the basement with a self-inflicted wound and took him to a hospital.
The man was a contract employee of the Federal Aviation Administration, said Aurora Police Chief Gregory Thomas. He said it was not a terrorist act and that the investigation was being run by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local police and fire departments.