New York City area airports resume flights after brief halt as coronavirus causes staffing issues

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: CNBC

TRANSPORTATION

New York City area airports resume flights after brief halt as coronavirus causes staffing issues

PUBLISHED SAT, MAR 21 20202:14 PM EDTUPDATED 11 MIN AGO

Leslie Josephs
https://twitter.com/lesliejosephs

KEY POINTS

Flights into New York City-area and Philadelphia airports were briefly halted due to coronavirus staffing issues.

A trainee air traffic controller at a facility on Long Island tested positive for the disease, the FAA said.

Coronavirus forced the FAA to shift tasks to backup facilities after cases were discovered at Las Vegas and at Chicago's Midway International Airport earlier this week.

Flights into major New York City-area airports were briefly halted on Saturday, as the coronavirus continues to cause staffing issues at air-traffic control facilities around the country, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

An air traffic controller-trainee based at a control center on Long Island tested positive for the virus, COVID-19, the FAA said. The trainee hadn't been in the facility since March 17 but the agency is working with local health authorities to sanitize and clean affected areas. The center is operational, it said.

Flights were delayed or canceled after FAA closed other air traffic-control facilities around the country, including towers at Chicago's Midway International Airport and McCarren International Airport, after technicians and others tested positive for the virus.

"The FAA is working with local health officials and employee representatives to determine how many personnel might have interacted with the trainee in recent days," the FAA said regarding the New York case.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/21/faa-issues-ground-stop-for-new-york-airports-because-of-staffing-issue.html

---

The halt was in place for only a few minutes. First WTOP said it was on, and I thought "well, that's just great."

The next thing I knew, it was off.

[benld74]

1. 9-11 grounded all. This still waiting

[Major Nikon]

2. I think we are just seeing the beginnings of this

As more people show up positive, people that work around them must be quarantined. That’s going to shut down more and more of these facilities.