C90 controller described a severe weather event including numerous microbursts; the reporter questio...

Narrative:

This is an unusual situation that I feel must be addressed. A severe thunderstorm developed north of ord and moved directly over the field. Even though our weather equipment showed numerous micro-bursts in the cell up to 45 KTS; arrivals for all 3 west runways continued to be used; mainly 28 and 27L. Instead of holding aircraft until the storm passed; aircraft were sent directly into this cell. When the micro-bursts hit the field; wind went from 270 at less than 15 to 010-140 gusts to 45 KTS. It was bad enough that one aircraft had to try and make an approach; but a total of 8 or 9 were sent directly into this storm and made missed approaches before other aircraft were taken off the approach. This was a total failure by the flm to recognize the danger and to avoid putting many lives at risk. This was by far the most hazardous situation I have seen. I have seen plenty of storms but none handled with such incompetence. A full investigation should be conducted including all weather data.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C90 Controller described a severe weather event including numerous microbursts; the reporter questioning the FLM's decision to not initiate holding sooner.

Narrative: This is an unusual situation that I feel must be addressed. A severe thunderstorm developed north of ORD and moved directly over the field. Even though our weather equipment showed numerous micro-bursts in the cell up to 45 KTS; arrivals for all 3 west runways continued to be used; mainly 28 and 27L. Instead of holding aircraft until the storm passed; aircraft were sent directly into this cell. When the micro-bursts hit the field; wind went from 270 at less than 15 to 010-140 gusts to 45 KTS. It was bad enough that one aircraft had to try and make an approach; but a total of 8 or 9 were sent directly into this storm and made missed approaches before other aircraft were taken off the approach. This was a total failure by the FLM to recognize the danger and to avoid putting many lives at risk. This was by far the most hazardous situation I have seen. I have seen plenty of storms but none handled with such incompetence. A full investigation should be conducted including all weather data.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1021540
Time
Date	201207
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ORD.Airport
State Reference	IL
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Person 1
Function	Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types

C90 controller described a severe weather event including numerous microbursts; the reporter questioning the flm's decision to not initiate holding sooner.