Flights FAA Grounds North Texas

The Federal Aviation Administration stopped all flights arriving and departing from DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field on Wednesday. The two airports announced the cessation of air traffic on their respective social media channels. The closures were affected from 3pm to 5.30pm and were partly due to bad weather and required sanitation at the region’s main non-FAA operations center in Fort Worth, an FAA spokesman said.

The control center employs about 380 air traffic controllers and manages high-level air traffic in several states.

Arlene Salac, a spokeswoman for the FAA, told Observer in an emailed statement earlier Wednesday, an air traffic control employee at the Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center tested positive for COVID-19. They had been on the premises for the last time at Christmas.

The spokesman said that if an affected employee has been at the facility seven days or less before testing positive for the virus, the agency’s protocols require a level 3 cleanup of all areas where that employee could have been. Cleaning began around 3:45 p.m. local time.

Because the cleanup required employees to temporarily leave the control room, the FAA declared a ground stop, causing delays and cancellations. Other FAA facilities supported the closure and worked traffic around the affected airspace, Salac said. The cleaning was completed around 5:05 pm, which allowed the flights to continue.

“The FAA takes the safety of its employees and the flying public very seriously,” the spokesman said. “Throughout the event, pilots were always in touch with air traffic control employees, either at the Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center or at other air traffic control facilities.”

Late Wednesday evening, Flightaware.com reported hundreds of delays and cancellations inside and outside the two airports.