The Transport Secretary said the odor that caused the outage was caused by an overheating circuit board, which has now been replaced.
A small plane skids off the runway and lands upside down
San Bernardino County Fire responded to a plane crash at Cable Airport, where a small plane was found perched upside down on top of the airport railing.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced late March 13 that three airports in the Washington, D.C., area have reopened after closures that caused nuisance “strong odors” caused by overheating circuit boards.
“The ground stop has ended and operations have resumed,” Duffy said in a statement about four hours after the closure was announced. “Firefighters from Fauquier and Prince William counties have confirmed to air traffic controllers that there is no danger and are returning to the Potomac tract. The source of the strong odor was determined to be an overheated circuit board and it has been replaced.”
TRACON stands for Terminal Radar Approach Control, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility where controllers manage aircraft within a 30-50 mile radius of an airport. Potomac’s TRACON facility is located in Northern Virginia.
The brief ground stop affected three major airports around the nation’s capital: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, and Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Richmond International Airport was also closed.
Duffy announced the closure at around 5:20 p.m. local time, issuing a statement suggesting that flights had been halted due to the odor.
Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration is “working to address the source of strong odors emanating from the Potomac Tracon that are impacting operations at three airports,” but did not say why Richmond was included.
The airport involved in the ground stop warned travelers that “delays are expected to remain” as a result.
“Airlines are resuming normal operations and preparing for departure. We expect delays to remain this evening,” Baltimore/Washington Airport officials said in a statement. “We appreciate the patience of passengers affected by the delays.”
Reagan administration officials told the flyer that “significant delays” were expected for the remainder of Friday night.
The series of shutdowns around Washington comes amid a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security amid the war against Iran and amid growing concerns about possible terrorist attacks.
On March 12, a man who lost his family in a bombing in Lebanon, in the midst of war, attempted a large-scale attack on a synagogue in Michigan. A temple security guard shot and killed a man after he drove his car into the building.
