An evacuation at Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control center located in Northern Virginia is delaying flights at Washington, D.C., area airports.
“Local fire officials directed the FAA to evacuate the Washington Center in Leesburg, VA at about 6:40 pm after fumes from construction work permeated the control room,” the FAA said in a statement Monday evening. “The center handles high altitude flights over the area. The facility stopped accepting new flights and handed off airborne flights to other air traffic control facilities for safe handling. We are actively working to fully ventilate the facility. We will update the statement when we get new information.”
The FAA, shortly after 9pm Monday, said it cleared air traffic controllers to reoccupy the Washington Center and expected operations to resume soon.
The Leesburg Virginia Fire Department cleared Air Traffic Controllers to reoccupy Washington Center. The FAA will resume operations soon.
— The FAA (@FAANews) July 11, 2017
The evacuation is causing delays at Baltimore-Washington, Dulles International, and Reagan National airports. According to flight tracking websites, Reagan National is seeing departure delays close to an hour. Delays at Dulles averaged about an hour but continue to grow, according to Flight Aware.
BWI Marshall is in a ground stop due to evacuation of an FAA enroute center. No estimate so check with your airline concerning your flight.
— BWI Marshall Airport (@BWI_Airport) July 10, 2017
Baltimore-Washington International announced in a tweet Monday evening the airport was in a ground stop and could not offer any estimate on how much the evacuation would delay flights.
Several flights have been deplaned from Reagan National, with no scheduled arrivals or departures until at least 9 pm, according to airline officials.
Loundon County Va., fire officials say 51 patients were evaluated as a result of the incident, with one transported to the hospital for a checkup as a precautionary measure.
