FAA contractor faces at least 10 years in prison for Chicago-area fire

A former Federal Aviation Administration contractor faces a decade in prison and millions of dollars in restitution when he is sentenced Friday for setting the September 2014 fire at a Chicago-area air-traffic control facility that disrupted thousands of flights.

Brian Howard, 37, of Naperville, Ill., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two counts: willful destruction of an air navigation facility and using fire during a federal felony. Howard faces a mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison for the fire, with sentencing guidelines calling for up to another nine years for the destruction.

U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon asked Judge Gary Feinerman for a total of 13 years in prison and pay the FAA $4.5 million. Fardon said 67 people were in the building when Howard set the fire.

“Defendant slashed key telecommunications cables, doused them in gasoline and then started a fire to make a quick repair impossible,” Fardon argued in court filings. “Defendant’s actions appear to be an isolated incident. But they could have had horrific consequences.”

Defense attorney Ronald Safer, noting Howard’s otherwise clean criminal record and honorable service in the Navy, argued for the minimum 10 years and one day, and said Howard would try to repay what he could in restitution.

Howard hadn’t intended to hurt airplanes, but to strike back at his employer because he felt overworked, Safer argued in a court filing. Howard had been depressed most of his life and must already deal with wounds of trying to kill himself by slashing his own throat the day of the fire, Safer said.

“Brian did not intend to endanger any flight, but his conduct was reckless,” Safer said in a court filing.

Michael Paulsen, the technical operations manager at the FAA’s regional center, where controllers track flights above 18,000 feet between airports, said the fire shut the center for 17 days and delayed 11,027 flights.

“The outage caused more than three times the number of delays than every other outage (nationwide) over the last 10 years combined,” Paulsen said in a court filing.

Howard had worked for Harris Communications, an FAA contractor, for eight years before the fire. His last day at the Illinois center was supposed to Sept. 19 before transferring to a less-stressful job with the same company in Hawaii, according to a psychiatrist, Henry Conroe, who examined him.

About 5 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2014, Howard carried a black Pelican suitcase into the center, prosecutors said. About 30 minutes after arriving, Howard posted a Facebook message that stated: "Take a hard look in the mirror, I have. And this is why I am about to take out (the center) and my life. April, Pop, love you guys and I am sorry. Leaving you with a big mess."

Other workers discovered the fire several minutes later. Amid dense smoke, emergency responders found that a floor panel had been lifted to expose telecommunications cables, some of which had been severed and set on fire. A gas can sat next to the floor panel, along with the Pelican suitcase.

Airlines estimated the fire cost them $350 million, as more than 5,000 flights were canceled at O'Hare and Midway airports in the week that followed. Hundreds of controllers from neighboring states pitched in for weeks to keep flights safe as the center was rebuilt.