Results tagged “faa”

As if we needed more reasons for delays out of our bustling airports ahead of the holidays. An FAA computer glitch cause nation-wide delays this morning, including at Midway and O'Hare. As of around 9 a.m. this morning, the Trib reported minimal delays at both Chicago airports (averaging 20 to 30 minutes) and the AP was reporting the glitch had been resolved. But AirTran has already been forced to cancel almost 40 flights due to the glitch and other residual delays can be expected. A quick scan of the FAA's flight delay site shows the worst of the delays confined to the East Coast but, as always, check with your specific airline before heading out the door.

The battle between Bensenville and the City of Chicago, due to the O'Hare expansion project, is over. The Tribune reports that under a new agreement, the demolition of houses could begin as early as December; the village agreed to end the fight in exchange for $16 million plus an additional $20 million more from the City of Chicago to insulate homes and schools from noise pollution caused by the planes flying in and out of O'Hare. The city will also hire consultants to assist in the demolition and will partner with the village to aid Bensenville in economic development. The village's long fight against O'Hare took a turn this spring when Frank Soto won election as village president; Soto called the agreement, "a victory for Bensenville."

At least on one home in the north center of Chicago. Last night at about 7:52 p.m. a large of chunk of ice fell onto the roof of a house on the 4200 block of N. Wolcott Ave while the family was inside watching TV. They said they heard a loud thud that shook the house like an earthquake. The family collected the balls of ice into a plastic bag and believes a large chuck on ice fell from the sky, hitting the roof and exploded into smaller pieces.

• A Decatur man has been arrested for plotting to blow up a federal courthouse in Springfield.
• Mayor Daley called the safety violations the FAA took O'Hare International Airport to task for "not very significant."
• This whole Cubs sale is one step closer to being done.

The Federal Aviation Administration discovered a litany of safety violations in a recent routine inspection of O'Hare International Airport, the Tribune reports today. The FAA sent a "letter of notice" to O'Hare officials which also called out the Chicago Department of Aviation. According to the Trib:

This week, the city's attempt to expand O'Hare got another win as the FAA approved the city's request to spend $182 million in airline passenger ticket taxes on designs for the expansion. According to the Trib, the money will be used on, "...the design of two new runways, an extension to an existing runway and a planned western passenger terminal." The entire $15 billion project is still facing major hurdles, though, including a fight by the residents of Bensenville and the major airlines who don't see the spending in the current economy as justifiable.

The First Family is making their first visit to Chicago since President Obama's inauguration and the FAA is putting airspace restrictions over Chicago in place this weekend for security reasons. The temporary restriction will be in place from Friday through Monday. According to Crain's, "The center of the restricted area will be near the lakeshore on the South Side and will extend up to 30 nautical miles from that point, the FAA said. All airspace up to 18,000 feet above ground will be included in the restricted area." The request for the restriction was made by the Secret Service and the FAA promises it won't affect any commercial traffic in and out of O'Hare and Midway.

Traffic at O’Hare crawls to its lowest since 1994, which isn’t great news considering the City of Chicago is spending about $15 billion to modernize the airport by 2014. The FAA released data this week showing incoming and outgoing flights were down last year to 881,566 at O’Hare and 266,341 at Midway, the worst for that airport since 1997.

The FAA's final approval of the City of Chicago's deal to privatize Midway Airport has been delayed. In September, the city leased Midway to Vancouver-based YVR Airport Services Ltd for 99 years at $2.5 billion. The FAA is still hashing out some of the financial agreements and YVR says the deal won't be finalized until April. The FAA, on the other hand, insists the work will be done before then. Given the fact that YVR manages 18 airports, it should have no trouble proving to the FAA it is capable of handling one more.

As if the delays and congestion situation at O'Hare weren't bad enough, they could get even worse Friday as the FAA-instituted cap on flights ends. The cap limits the number of flights per hour between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. to 88 but is being lifted by the FAA thanks to the economic struggles of the airline industry. Of course, even with fewer flights O'Hare is still one of the worst airports in the nation for on-time arrivals and departures. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters will be in town to look for other solutions to fixing O'Hare's woes. I bet she totally flies in to Midway.

Last night's fatal crash of an Air Angels helicopter flight in west suburban Aurora still has no apparent cause, but more information is coming out. The victims have been identified as William Mann of Chicago, Dell Waugh of Carmel, Indiana, and Ronald Battiato of Peotone; the infant patient has been identified as Kirstian Blockinger of Leland.

A helicopter crashed into the house of a family of five early this morning, killing both people on-board the copter; none of the residents in the house were hurt. The crash happened around 5:30 a.m. this morning and the FAA still has no official cause for the crash, though there were reports of fog in the area. The helicopter belongs to a charter company that operates out of the Kenosha Airport. There was no flight plan on file for the helicopter and its destination is as of now unknown.

It seems a computer glitch at the FAA's Atlanta facility has affected air traffic at various airports across the nation, including O'Hare and Midway. According to the Trib, delays are longer at Midway (up to an hour and fourty-five minutes) than at O'Hare (15 to 30 minutes). The glitch has forced the FAA to process flight plans manually which takes longer than an electronic transfer.

Near-collisions at O'Hare are nothing new. But from 2001 to 2006, the airport was second behind only LAX in terms of "runway incursions." To alleviate this problem, O'Hare will be one of twenty recipients of a new warning system that uses red lights embedded in the runway pavement to alert pilots to collision risks even before air traffic control could.

The technology is based on a complex array of radar sensors that provide the real-time location of aircraft and vehicles moving on the airfield. The system also can predict whether the routes taken by planes match the directions issued by air-traffic controllers or represent an imminent danger.

Remember when you found out through a series of zany sitcom plot twists time and again that telling little white lies will backfire on you? Well, an air-traffic control center in Elgin is learning that lesson the hard way; turns out fudging the truth isn’t so funny when you’re in charge of travel safety.