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Brian Howard, 37,
who worked as a telecommunications contractor at the Air Route
Traffic Control Center in Aurora, Illinois, apologized at his
sentencing hearing, which lasted more than two hours before U.S.
District Judge Gary Feinerman.
Communications for dozens of jets flying in the Midwest were
wiped out when Howard set fire to telecoms equipment and tried
to kill himself by slashing his neck with a knife, prosecutors
said.
The damage caused days of flight cancellations and delays across
the country and millions of dollars in damage to the Federal
Aviation Administration facility, prosecutors said.
Howard, who faced up to 30 years in prison, told the judge he
had been depressed and that he acted out of despair, according
to a report in the Chicago Tribune.
"Howard attacked a critical piece of infrastructure in our
nation's airspace, causing one of the most severe disruptions to
air travel in recent memory," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew
Polovin said in a statement. "He committed a violent crime that
put thousands of lives at risk."
He used wire cutters last Sept. 26 to sever cables at the center
then rubbed gasoline on equipment before setting it on fire,
according to a guilty plea that he entered in May.
The center where he worked controls aircraft flying above 5,000
feet over a large part of the central United States, including
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the world's
busiest airports.
(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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