On Friday September 26th a suicidal man started a fire at the air traffic control center which directs flights in and out of Chicago’s two major airports, O’Hare and Midway. The fire did enough damage that travel in and out of both airports came to a near standstill. The man was later arrested but not before he managed to create a transportation nightmare across the country.
Chicago is not only the third largest city in the US but it also functions as a major transportation gateway linking various parts of the country. O’Hare is the primary hub for United Airlines and one of the biggest hubs for American Airlines. When flights were suspended it created a ripple effect that caused the cancellation of nearly 4000 flights across the country. Hundreds of thousands of passengers found themselves stranded or canceling weekend plans. Not only were thousands inconvenienced but the economic impact has been estimated at about $123 million.
Air travel is dependent on a vast network of planes moving continuously across the country. Planes are typically scheduled to land at a destination, unload passengers, load new passengers, and then proceed on to the next destination as quickly as possible. It is a system that has been finely tuned over the years and despite the large number of people traveling at all times it creates a remarkably high level of efficiency.
At the same time when an unexpected event causes a major disruption it shows the weakness of networks. Removing one city from the grid, even for just a few days, can disrupt the system nationally and create chaos. When people travel they don’t typically think of all the moving parts required to get them to their destination on time. This high level of efficiency comes at a price, the lack of resilience to potential delays and cancellations that can be caused by any number of things, in this instance a mentally disturbed individual.