The Nation - News from May 10, 1988

Flights to and from Chicago were delayed up to two hours after a fire at a telephone switching center disrupted air traffic communications, officials said. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Fred Farrar in Washington said the delays at O’Hare International and at nearby Midway airports spread throughout the nation, although only planes to and from Chicago were affected. He said a fire Sunday at the Illinois Bell Telephone Co. switching facility in Hinsdale knocked out most lines between the airports and the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Aurora. Six firefighters were hurt and 35,000 phone customers were without service, officials said. Mort Edelstein, FAA spokesman in Chicago, said the outage forced air traffic controllers at Midway and O’Hare to use back-up systems and increase the separation between aircraft to 20 miles. He said O’Hare was receiving only 50 arrivals an hour, a third of its peak capacity.