Panel
Bryan Zilonis, Great Lakes Regional Vice President, NATCA Terry Biggio, Vice
President of Air Traffic Services, ATO Toby Hauck, Chicago Center Facility
Representative, NATCA Bill Cound, Air Traffic Manager, Chicago Center, ATO
Matt Walters, South Bend Facility Representative, NATCA
Dan Pawelski, Air Traffic Manager, South Bend, ATO
Mike Thompson, Minneapolis Center Facility Representative, NATCA
Ron Sekenski, Staff Manager, Minneapolis Center, ATO
An inspirational video recap, as well as panel discussing the events surrounding the Chicago Center fire in Sept. of 2014. Everyone gave their personal accounts of the day and the weeks that followed. Time and time again the stories piled up with astounding stories of professionalism and Controllers and supporting staff going above and beyond to get the system back to capacity. Within four days O'hare was back to the number one busiest airport in the nation. This involved controllers deploying to all of the surrounding facilities, sleeping on futons, driving across the country with necessary equipment and leaving families behind in order to step up and keep the nations airspace running smoothly. This was a time to truly feel honored by our brothers and sisters stepping up and going above and beyond anything that was ever expected or required of them. Awards were given to a small pool of people representing each of the affected facilities although it was noted that almost everyone across the NAS was somewhat impacted and helped in any way possible.