A security guard stands in front of the air-traffic control center in Aurora, Ill., on Sept. 26, 2014, after all flights in and out of Chicago's two airports were halted following a fire at the facility.(Photo: Scott Sanders, AP)

A former Federal Aviation Administration contractor was sentenced Friday to 12 and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $4.5 million in restitution for setting the September 2014 fire at a Chicago-area air-traffic control facility that disrupted thousands of flights.

Brian Howard, 37, of Naperville, Ill., had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two counts: willful destruction of an air navigation facility and using fire during a federal felony. He faced at least least 10 years in prison, and possibly 19 years, under sentencing guidelines.

Howard read a lengthy statement to the court apologizing for his actions, blaming them on a "fog" of depression, according to The Chicago Tribune.

"I lost myself and I snapped. I decided to take my own life," he said, according to the Tribune. "I did not act out of anger. I acted out of despair. I cannot explain why I did it."

Judge Gary Feinerman sentenced him after a two-and-a-half-hour hearing.

U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon had asked for 13 years and $4.5 million in restitution because 67 people were in the building when Howard set the fire, and the damage was significant.

“Defendant slashed key telecommunications cables, doused them in gasoline and then started a fire to make a quick repair impossible,” Fardon argued in court filings. “Defendant’s actions appear to be an isolated incident. But they could have had horrific consequences.”

Defense attorney Ronald Safer, noting Howard’s otherwise clean criminal record and honorable service in the Navy, argued for the minimum 10 years and one day, and said Howard would try to repay what he could in restitution.

Howard hadn’t intended to hurt airplanes, but to strike back at his employer because he felt overworked, Safer argued in a court filing. Howard had been depressed most of his life and must already deal with wounds of trying to kill himself by slashing his own throat the day of the fire, Safer said.

“Brian did not intend to endanger any flight, but his conduct was reckless,” Safer said in a court filing.

Michael Paulsen, the technical operations manager at the FAA’s regional center, where controllers track flights above 18,000 feet between airports, said the fire shut the center for 17 days and delayed 11,027 flights.

“The outage caused more than three times the number of delays than every other outage (nationwide) over the last 10 years combined,” Paulsen said in a court filing.

Howard had worked for Harris Communications, an FAA contractor, for eight years before the fire. His last day at the Illinois center was supposed to Sept. 19 before transferring to a less-stressful job with the same company in Hawaii, according to a psychiatrist, Henry Conroe, who examined him.

Other workers discovered the fire early on Sept. 26, 2014. Amid dense smoke, emergency responders found that a floor panel had been lifted to expose telecommunications cables, some of which had been severed and set on fire. A gas can sat next to the floor panel, along with the Pelican suitcase.

Airlines estimated the fire cost them $350 million, as more than 5,000 flights were canceled at O'Hare and Midway airports in the week that followed. Hundreds of controllers from neighboring states pitched in for weeks to keep flights safe as the center was rebuilt.

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