Flights resume after FAA facility evacuation wreaks havoc at BWI

Associated Press
7:47 PM, Jul 10, 2017
8:09 AM, Jul 11, 2017

Flights into and out of three airports in the Washington region were affected by a construction-related evacuation at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Virginia. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Reagan National Airport were all impacted, with flights halted for several hours.

Flights at BWI, Dulles and Reagan were canceled and delayed after the FAA facility in Leesburg, Virginia had to be evacuated. American Airlines canceled all flights to and from BWI just after 8:30 p.m.

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LEESBURG, Va. (AP) - Flights into and out of three airports in the Washington region have resumed Tuesday after being affected by a construction-related evacuation at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Virginia.

BWI Airport officials said airlines are still working to restore flights at BWI and other area airports. 

Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Reagan National Airport were all impacted by the evacuation, with flights halted for several hours.

The FAA said in a statement that a facility in Leesburg, Virginia, that handles high altitude flights over the area was evacuated about 6:40 p.m. Monday because of fumes from construction work.

The FAA says that as a result of the evacuation, the facility stopped accepting new flights and handed off airborne flights to other facilities.

The FAA said in a statement that air traffic controllers resumed operations at the facility about 9:30 p.m. Monday and that delayed flights were beginning to take off. Normal operations were expected to resume Tuesday morning.

ABC2 News contributed to this report.

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