Tag Archives: faa

O’Hare flights drop in 2016; Atlanta busiest airport again

CHICAGO (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration reports O’Hare International Airport in Chicago was the nation’s second-busiest in 2016. Flights at O’Hare dropped 1 percent.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport saw a jump in flights of 2 percent compared to 2015. It had just under 900,000 arrivals and departures compared with O’Hare’s 868,000.

Los Angeles International Airport took over the number three spot in 2016 from the field in Dallas-Fort Worth. Denver’s was fifth for a second straight year.

Midway International Airport on Chicago’s south side was 25th busiest for the second year in a row with 253,000 flights, down slightly.

The FAA says the five-year operations average at O’Hare is 877,000. That compares with 963,000 annually from 2004 to 2007.

June 23-24 were O’Hare’s busiest days in 2016 with 2,700 flight operations each day.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Big John Howell Show Notes 6-9-16

The debate over the new plaza at Wrigley Field is heating up. The Cubs say the plaza will be used for mostly family-friendly events, but als want to be able to sell beer and wine to people visiting the area. Meanwhile, the people living in the area say it will be a 6,000 person beer garden. Lisa Iverson from the Southport Neighborhood Association joined John with the neighborhood point of view on the debate. (Listen here)

Most of the Republican party elected officials seem to have come to terms with Donald Trump being the party’s Presidential nominee, even if they aren’t thrilled with the idea. Could Trump at the top of the ticket end up huring the rising stars down the ticket? CNN Commentator and DailyCaller.com Senior Contributor Matt Lewis says yes. He joined John to talk about why. (Listen here)

Did you ever see the “Spirit of America” rocket car at the Museum of Science and Industry? It broke the land speed record in 1965 and then the owner Graig Breedlove immediately loaned it to the museum. They just sent it back to him 50 years later and he’s suing them in federal court, because he says there’s $400,000 worth of damage to the car.

A Corpus Christi fisherman is claiming Facebook removed his post featuring photos of a captured shark. Eric Ozolins says Facebook told him the photos of the 13-foot hammerhead shark went against the website’s “terms and policy.” Ozolins says the social media site is trying to “gain influence from uneducated tree-huggers,” instead of focusing on “graphic violence, terrorists threats, and racism.” The fisherman posted photos of the hammerhead on Sunday.

An Atlanta woman has taken time off from her job as a bartender to establish breastfeeding because she wants to start an Adult Breastfeeding Relationship.

The FAA is saying that secret military testing out west could make GPS “unreliable” for about a week. Luckily it will only effect small private jets and not commercial aircraft.

Kris Kristofferson has been misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was having memory issues, and doctors assume he had Alzheimer’s or dementia, but he took medication for years and it didn’t help anything. Eventually doctors tested him for Lyme disease and he tested positive.

Formal charges filed against suspect in Aurora FAA facility arson

(CHICAGO) Federal prosecutors formally filed charges Friday against Brian Howard, the Naperville man accused of setting fire to an FAA radar facility in Aurora last year, leading to a grounding of all planes at O’Hare and Midway.

Howard, 37, is charged with one count of willfully setting fire to, damaging, destroying or disabling an air navigation facility; and one count of using fire to commit a federal felony, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Howard was initially charged in a criminal complaint affidavit filed after his arrest for starting the Sept. 26, 2014 fire, according to federal prosecutors.

Formal charges were filed Friday after Howard agreed to be charged by information brought forward by prosecutors rather than by grand jury indictment, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Howard entered the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center in Aurora using his FAA-issued credentials about 5 a.m. on Sept. 26, prosecutors said. About 30 minutes later, he posted a message to Facebook that said, “Take a hard look in the mirror, I have. And this is why I am about to take out [the Control Center] and my life.”

Howard slashed several telecommunications cables with a knife and set them on fire before attempting to slash his own throat, authorities said after his arrest.

During initial court proceedings, his attorney said the Navy veteran had been told he was being transferred to Hawaii and was not happy about it. He had worked for Harris Corp. for eight years, helping modernize communications equipment at FAA facilities. He was fired shortly after his arrest.

The charge of damaging an air navigation facility carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, prosecutors said. The charge of using fire carries a mandatory sentence of 10 years.

Although no date has been set, Howard’s next court appearance will be for arraignment before U.S> District Judge Gary Feinerman.