I really have to question your assertion that most FAA controllers are ex-military. Perhaps just after WWII through the 1950's, even into the 1960's, but the vast majority I've encountered were all strictly civilian. I think it's like the meme that most commercial pilots are ex-military. No, they aren't, not since the late 1970's.
Anyhow - Mr. Howard appeared in court yesterday. His extended family turned out to support him. He apologized to his family, but not to the tens of thousands of people he severely inconvenienced. The government is arguing the act was pre-meditated with his Facebook post as evidence.
So, in addition to the fire that destroyed 23 of 29 computer racks running the ARTCC he apparently deliberately cut all the radar feeds and communication lines for the building. About the only thing he didn't do a bang-up job of destroying was his own self. Then again, he was a telecommunications specialist, not a self-harm specialist.
Link to article on
Bloomberg which talks about his Facebook post:
The man charged with setting fire to a Chicago-area air-traffic facility, paralyzing travel through the city’s two major airports, was consumed by the U.S. government’s “immoral and unethical acts,” according to a Facebook message under his name.
The posting, which includes references to being under the influence of drugs, calls government workers “lazy and useless” and said the government “would rather take care of itself and the money in the world, definitely not its people.”
It was posted on the account of Brian Howard, 36, at about 5:36 a.m. local time yesterday, minutes before firefighters were called to the Federal Aviation Administration center in Aurora, Illinois.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation in a search-warrant affidavit yesterday quoted from the post, which it attributed to Howard, without mentioning the anti-government content. Bloomberg News received the complete message from a family member of one of Howard’s Facebook friends. The person who provided it asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to release it.
Joan Hyde, an FBI spokeswoman in Chicago, said in an e-mail that the affidavit contained only a portion of the Facebook posting. She said she couldn’t comment on any passages beyond the excerpts contained in yesterday’s court document.
Howard, 36, of Naperville, Illinois, faces a single felony count of setting fire to an air-navigation facility, according to a copy of the criminal complaint filed in Chicago and provided by the FBI.
‘Hate Us’
The fire forced the evacuation of the control center, briefly shut down all arrivals and departures at O’Hare International Airport -- the second busiest U.S. hub -- and Midway Airport, and continued to hamper travel today.
Southwest Airlines Co., which has 90 percent of departures at Midway, canceled all flights there between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
“WAKE UP!” said the message to those authorized to read what’s been identified as Howard’s Facebook page. “This is a gov’t by the people, for the people and of the people which right now equates to immoral and unethical acts. That’s why terrorists and 3rd world nations hate us, because our tax dollars go to more unrest than rest.”
“So we deserve the retribution from people who do not have the same ability for education, work and way of life,” the writer said.
“Take a hard look in the mirror, I have,” the poster continued in a portion of the message quoted by the FBI. “And this is why I am about to take out ZAU and my life.”
ZAU is the three-letter identifier for the FAA’s Chicago Air Route Center in Aurora, one of the busiest U.S. air traffic-control facilities, overseeing high-altitude traffic across four Midwest states that also include Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Blood Trail
When a paramedic responding to the fire found Howard after following a trail of blood, he was “in the process of actively slicing his throat” with one of at least three knives found in the basement area where the blaze occurred, according to the FBI affidavit.
Howard told paramedics who started treating him for his wounds to “leave me alone,” according to the affidavit.
The Facebook message suggested the damage to the nation’s aviation system wouldn’t be severe.
“The outage I’m about to take should not take a large toll on the air space as all comms should be switched to the alt location which will most likely cause some delays,” the message stated.
‘Stoned, Nervous’
“That being said, who knows what else will become a factor due to gov’t employees being in control of the upcoming situation. Many of them live up to exactly how they are viewed by the public, lazy and useless. But that is what I have come to observe of most US Citizens, lazy,” the writer said, referencing being “stoned and nervous.”
The note listed family members and closed with: “I love you guys and I am sorry. Leaving you with a big mess. Do your best to quickly move on from me please.”
“So I’m gonna smoke this blunt and move on, take care everyone,” the message said.
Howard, who worked on telecommunications, was employed at the control center for eight years and recently learned that he was being transferred to Hawaii, according to the criminal complaint.
He worked for FAA contractor Harris Corp., according to Jessica Cigich, a spokeswoman for the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union. While PASS doesn’t represent Harris employees, it includes about 11,000 FAA employees, including some who maintain air-traffic equipment.
If convicted, he faces as long as 20 years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000, Hyde said.
Surveillance Camera
Like other contract employees with access to FAA’s air-traffic facilities, Howard would have had to pass a background check, a government employee said in an e-mail. The official, who wasn’t authorized to talk about the agency’s security policies, asked not to be identified.
A surveillance camera showed Howard arriving at the control tower shortly after 5 a.m. carrying a hard-sided roller-board suitcase. The Facebook message, which an unidentified relative forwarded to police, was posted about 30 minutes later, according to the court filing.
At about 5:45 a.m., emergency personnel were notified of a fire at the control center, according to the complaint charging Howard.
Paramedics went to the basement of the control tower, where they followed smoke to a trail of blood that led to a floor panel which had been pulled away, exposing telecommunications cables and other wires, according to the filing. They also found a gasoline can and towels that had been soaked.
This has presented to the public as NOT terrorism, and generally only quoting the post from "take a good look in the mirror" line forward. This is the only instance I've found so far indicating he had something to say about the government. I think that interesting, because on reading more of the post I get a sense that, even if there was a mental breakdown aspect here there are also elements of a "lone wolf" act of sabotage. This wasn't just a suicide, it was a deliberate act to cause a big problem for others.
The government really doesn't want the public to think of the ATC system being vulnerable. Of course it is. It's a complex system and by their nature complex systems are vulnerable to breakdown. There are ways to mitigate that vulnerability, but the government doesn't want to admit that no such action has been taken.
On the upside - as demonstrated by the aviation system sorting out traffic already in the air - there is a certain resilience in the system, in the human pilots themselves. That is, after all, why we still have humans in the cockpit, to deal with unforeseen and unlikely circumstances such as occurred. Everyone in the air landed safely, even if not at their planned destination.
I really think the government is, on a certain level, afraid of how the public will wind up perceiving this. Despite the background checks and the security some insider went nuts and set fire to an important part of a vulnerable and rickety system that is costing the airlines and the public hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue, unanticipated expenses, and a shitload of inconvenience. I think the truth is that you can't entirely eliminate the insider problem - someone can pass every background check, examination, and questioning at one point and at a later point have a change of mind/heart/attitude. People who work on the system know the system's vulnerabilities.
It comes down to the fact that the world is not an inherently safe place. We can do a lot to mitigate risk, but we can't entirely eliminate it.
The point has also been made that this isn't just about human actors. A truly accidental fire might have happened, or a major tornado could have hit the facility, or some other thing occur that would wipe out an ARTCC's ability to function. There's a lot of noise from the politicians about controlling the human factor - better screening, testing, security - but they're NOT talking about non-human risks.
There needs to be better back up for major parts of the system like ARTCCs
Why isn't that being discussed? Money? Stupidity? Both? We can beat up and tweak the human element all we want, that doesn't really fix the vulnerability here. It's not just a matter of making the current ARTCCs more robust, there needs to be better backup, probably reserve facilities. There has been too much centralizing in the name of efficiency. Yes, it is more efficient - until it isn't anymore.
A robust and resilient system has redundancy. Aviation KNOWS this - that's why airliners have
at least three parallel systems for critical things, like flight instruments and at least two live human pilots. It would be a shitload more efficient and cheap not to do this, but no airline manufacturer or airline is going to do that because shit really does happen in real life and that redundancy saves lives and money time and again.
The problem is that the aviation
industry is not what is making decisions to build or not build various support facilities like ARTCCs. It's politics. That's why there is no funding, no redundancy, and way too much finger pointing.
That might cost money or something. Redundancy isn't efficient or something - nevermind that the aviation industry, including airlines and cargo, are sort of important to the economy.
