FAA Grounds North Texas Flights

The Federal Aviation Administration suspended all arriving and departing flights from DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field on Wednesday. The two airports announced the air traffic on their respective social media channels. An FAA spokesman said the closures were effective from 3pm to about 5.30pm and were partly due to bad weather and sanitation at the FAA’s primary operational center for the region in Fort Worth.

The control center employs approximately 380 air traffic controllers and handles high-level air traffic in various states.

FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac told the Observer in an email statement that earlier Wednesday an air traffic control employee at the Fort Worth Air Traffic Center tested positive for COVID-19. They were last in the facility at Christmas.

The spokesman said as an employee who had been in the facility for seven days or less before testing positive for the virus, the agency’s protocols required a Level 3 cleanup of all areas where the employee was possible. The cleaning started around 15:45 local time.

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

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

Late Wednesday night, Flightaware.com reported hundreds of delays and cancellations in and out of the two airports.