The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all flights across some of the busiest airports in the United States on Friday evening (US time) for over an hour.
The issued ground stop announcement impacted operations at four major Washington DC-area airports – Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Richmond International Airport, according to FAA Secretary Sean Duffy’s social media update.
Why were ground stops issued at US airports on Friday?
The Transportation Secretary further noted that the major development was attributed to reports of a “strong odour” at the Potomac air traffic control facility.
“@FAANews is working to address the source of a strong odor coming from Potomac TRACON that is impacting operations at the three airport,” Duffy wrote on X.
Similarly, in an email quoted by The New York Times, an FAA representative said the ground stops were issued because of a “strong chemical smell at the Potomac TRACON that is impacting some air traffic controllers.” The smell was ultimately traced to a circuit board that overheated, Duffy added. It has since been replaced.
Operations resume at Washington DC airports
Initially, the ground stops-turned-ground delays were expected to last until 12 am at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and until 1 a.m. at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, as per the FAA. Its website highlighted that the Dulles and Richmond airports were no longer facing ground delays.
According to the Associated Press, flights started leaving the airports after 7 pm ET on March 13. However, the ground stops preventing aircraft from landing at an airport were still in place at the time. Taking to his official social media handle, Duffy shared an update stating that airport operations had resumed around 9 pm.
As per the FAA, arrivals and departures to the Baltimore-Washington International Airport were delayed by about two hours. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport faced delays of about three hours.