Seen from the Washington Monument, flights line as much as depart Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport on March 8, 2026 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Aaron Schwartz | Getty Photos
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration stated it stopped site visitors on the three major Washington-area airports on Friday after air site visitors controllers at a Virginia facility needed to halt work due to a robust chemical scent.
Airborne flights had been diverting and plane on the bottom had been being held in place, stated Flightradar24, a flight monitoring website. The problem was snarling site visitors through the busy U.S. spring break journey interval.
The FAA stated the problem disrupted operations at Potomac Consolidated Terminal RADAR Method Management, which controls airspace over quite a few airports within the Washington area and had pressured the company to cease site visitors at Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, Washington Dulles Worldwide Airport, Baltimore-Washington Worldwide Airport and Richmond Worldwide Airport.
Airways informed Reuters the FAA was relocating Potomac controllers to a coaching facility. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated on X the FAA was working “to handle the supply of a robust odor coming from Potomac TRACON that’s impacting operations.”
Controllers may have lowered radar scopes so extra delays are probably as soon as the bottom stops are lifted in the event that they relocate to the coaching facility, airline officers stated.
Delays had been impacting greater than 325 flights, or 34% of arriving and departing flights at Reagan, about 25%, or 180 flights at Baltimore and greater than 200 flights at Dulles, in accordance to FlightAware, a flight monitoring website.
