Flights at both DFW Airport and Dallas Love Field have come to a halt. Here’s why:
Flights across North Texas, including those at DFW Airport and Dallas Love Field, were delayed Wednesday by what turned out to be a minor incident at a TRACON radar facility near DFW.
The incident, which was reported about 12:30 p.m, involved smoke in a building, forcing air traffic controllers to evacuate. The smoke was believed to be related to nearby ongoing construction work, an FAA official said.
“The FAA put a ground stop in place to help manage the volume of traffic in the interim,” FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said in an email.
At 1:27 p.m., the FAA announced that the DFW Department of Public Safety “is clearing the remaining smoke from the building. We hope to have controllers back on position within the next 30 minutes. After that, the ground stop will be gradually lifted as the airspace gets back to full volume.”
But flight takeoffs and landings could be messy for much of the afternoon.
Travelers are urged to check with their airline before heading out to the airport.
The incident occurred at a FAA facility that controls traffic throughout the region, and not at either of the DFW Airport control towers.
“Under our contingency plan, controllers from the radar room are relocating to the control towers at DFW to resume limited service in the affected airspace for both DFW and Dallas Love Field,” Lunsford said.
This story was originally published February 13, 2019 at 1:48 PM.
