{"id":522556,"date":"2026-03-14T05:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522556\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T05:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:09:13","slug":"ground-stop-at-3-dc-area-airports-lifted-after-halting-due-to-strong-chemical-smell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522556\/","title":{"rendered":"Ground stop at 3 DC-area airports lifted after halting due to \u2018strong chemical smell\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A ground stop due to &#8220;equipment outage&#8221; is in effect at all three D.C.-area airports Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>A ground stop at all three major D.C.-area airports Friday has been lifted. It was originally in effect around 5:30 p.m. due to a \u201cstrong chemical smell\u201d at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>The airports are still facing ground delays.<\/p>\n<p>The FAA issued ground stops at Reagan National, Dulles International and BWI Marshall airports, as well as the Charlottesville-Albemarle and Richmond International airports.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to WTOP, the FAA said the ground stops are due to a \u201cstrong chemical smell\u201d at the Potomac Consolidated Terminal RADAR Approach Control (TRACON) in Virginia, affecting some air traffic controllers. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/about\/office_org\/headquarters_offices\/ato\/service_units\/air_traffic_services\/tracon\/pct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Potomac Consolidated TRACON<\/a> provides air traffic control services to the Baltimore-Washington and Richmond-Charlottesville areas.<\/p>\n<p>Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecDuffy\/status\/2032619927387914503?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a post on X <\/a>that the cause of the strong odor was a circuit board that overheated. He said it\u2019s been replaced and air traffic controllers have been cleared to return to the building.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Ground_Stop_DC_Airports_51057-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-29042592 size-newsletter_full_width\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Ground_Stop_DC_Airports_51057-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Ground Stop DC Airports\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"\/><\/a>Stranded travelers crowd the Southwest domestic terminal at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Friday, March 13, 2026, after a ground stop. (Ellie Wolf\/The Baltimore Banner via AP)<\/p>\n<p>Between 25% and one-third of all flights departing from the airports affected were delayed after the ground stop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s going to be ripple effects all night long because the delays were growing by the second it looked like,\u201d Transportation reporter Tom Roussey with WTOP news partner 7News said.<\/p>\n<p>The TRACON facility is an FAA facility that works with the regional airports. Roussey said with the way flights are scheduled, \u201cif anything throws them off, it creates a ripple effect, and I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll be dealing with this the rest of the night, maybe even into tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fauquier County Fire Rescue System said in a release Friday night that crews were alerted to a \u201cpotential hazardous materials incident\u201d after personnel reported a strong smell of chemicals inside the facility. Prince William County\u2019s hazardous materials team also responded to the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Kalvyn Smith said in the release that some employees had \u201cmild symptoms\u201d when they were evaluated by EMS, with none requiring transport to a local hospital.<\/p>\n<p>WTOP anchor Mark Lewis was caught at Reagan National, where his flight was meant to depart at 5 p.m. It wasn\u2019t until 7 p.m. that he reported the plane\u2019s engine turned on and the pilot began taxiing. He said the whole flight applauded when they heard the good news.<\/p>\n<p>WTOP listeners have reported sitting on tarmacs for long periods of time or deboarding altogether.<\/p>\n<p>One listener told WTOP they were in line to takeoff when their pilot came on the overhead radio to inform passengers of the ground stop. They sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes until the plane returned to its departure gate where passengers deplaned. The Southwest flight had originally been scheduled to takeoff at 4:35 p.m. and they began reboarding around 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Stay with WTOP for the latest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/newsletter-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A ground stop due to &#8220;equipment outage&#8221; is in effect at all three D.C.-area airports Friday afternoon. A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,146742,193842,23507,235599,3,235600,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-522556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bwi-airport","10":"tag-dulles-airport","11":"tag-faa","12":"tag-ground-stop","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-reagan-national-airport","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}