Emergency 911 calls made by friends and family of an FAA contract employee accused of setting fire to an air traffic control center in Aurora last month reveal a concern for the suspect's mental state, but no idea of the enormity of what he was allegedly about to do.
Brian Howard's family were among the first to alert authorities that something was amiss after noticing disturbing posts on his Facebook page on the morning of Sept. 28. That's when they began calling police.
At the time, Howard's sister believed he was still inside his Naperville apartment.
911 Call: "He posted something on Facebook saying that the outage he was about to take might knock down communications, and something with air delays or something like that."
Authorities say Howard, who had daily access to the Aurora facility, poured gasoline in critical areas of the building's basement and set equipment ablaze, before trying to slash his own throat.
Howard's Facebook posts appeared to show that he was contemplating suicide.
"Take a hard look in the mirror. I have. And that is why I am about to take out ZAU and my life," Howard posted on his page.
The dispatcher asked Howard's sister whether he had ever been suicidal in the past.
911 Call: "He's never attempted in the past, but I have talked to my dad specifically about being worried about him ... And then he said he loved me and my dad and my kid and he's sorry to do this to me, but try to get over him quickly."
Howard's sister said she thought he was looking forward to an upcoming move to Hawaii, but noted he hadn't been himself recently.
911 Call: "He's supposed to be leaving Tuesday and we're supposed to be having a going-away party on Saturday for him, like a huge one, and he wouldn't let me come there for like a week and a half. Like, I kept making plans and he kept canceling them, and I called my dad and said something's wrong. It's not like my brother."
Howard is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago
The FAA is trying to get traffic at O'Hare back to its normal rate. The agency plans to begin transferring control back to the Aurora center on Sunday.
