O’Hare Radar Outage Disrupts Flights

A radar outage Friday night at O’Hare International Airport left more than 50 planes circling the field and hundreds more grounded across the country, an official said.

A bad circuit card in an electronic circuit board at the O’Hare control tower knocked the radar out intermittently between 6:48 p.m. and 7:33 p.m., said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mort Edelstein.

During that period, 54 planes were held in the air surrounding O’Hare, Edelstein said. The airport’s controllers were in voice contact with the pilots, who also were tracked by controllers at another Chicago-area radar installation, he said.

“There was no safety problem at any time. These are professionals,” Edelstein said.

Six planes were diverted to other airports and 60 planes were held on the ground at O’Hare, Edelstein said. In addition, officials in Washington D.C., ordered a ground stop, holding every plane bound for O’Hare on the ground until the problem was corrected, he said.

The longest delay was 55 minutes, Edelstein said.