Covid cases at F.A.A. center in Fort Worth lead to ripples of delays and diverted flights across the country.
An air traffic control center that serves Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was closed for several hours on Wednesday for cleaning after an unspecified number of employees tested positive for the coronavirus, grounding flights at one of the world’s busiest hubs.
The disruption at the center — which handles high-altitude air traffic for most of North Texas, Northwest Louisiana and the southern parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas — caused ripples of delays and diverted flights across the country.
The Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center suspended operations from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. so the facility could be disinfected, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which did not say how many employees had contracted the virus.
Whoa. Dallas/Ft. Worth airports shut down by the #FAA - lots of flights grounded/diverted. @flightradar24 pic.twitter.com/KU1Xd2ibsY
— Dawn ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻 Neufeld #BLM (@DawnNeufeld) December 30, 2020
Both Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field reported substantial disruptions to their operations.
“The F.A.A. has closed the airspace in and out of the DFW Airport until 5:00 p.m. Central Time,” Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport said in a statement. “This is due to a required sanitization cleaning of offsite F.A.A. facilities that control the airspace in DFW. This will result in flights being delayed or possibly cancelled.”
The airport, which served about 75 million passengers last year before the pandemic, urged travelers to check with airlines for changes to their flights.
A spokesman for Love Field, which is operated by the city of Dallas, said that departures and arrivals had been temporarily halted at the airport.
“The estimate we received for return to normal operations was 1-2 hours and that was about an hour ago,” the spokesman, Chris Perry, said in an email around 4:45 p.m. local time.
About an hour later, an F.A.A. spokeswoman said that a ground stop had been lifted. She also noted that flights passing through the airspace served by the control center had continued to operate and had been able to communicate with other control centers.
Isaak Thurber said that his flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport had been affected by the ground stop.
“Mid way through my flight the pilot comes on the intercom to tell us that DFW airspace has been closed due to ‘covid related issues’ and that we don’t know what to do,” Mr. Thurber said on Twitter. “Now, we’ve landed in Oklahoma City. Gotta love 2020.”
"center" - Google News
December 31, 2020 at 07:32AM
https://ift.tt/3pAbiep
Closing of Air Traffic Control Center for Virus Cleaning Halts Flights in Dallas - The New York Times
"center" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bUHym8
https://ift.tt/2zR6ugj
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Closing of Air Traffic Control Center for Virus Cleaning Halts Flights in Dallas - The New York Times"
Post a Comment