Just heard from a friend of mine that the Washington DC Center was evacuated for fumes/smoke/fire.
Anyone have any information on this, or if what effect it has on flights operating through that center?
Thanks
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- bluefltspecial
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ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
Last edited by atcsundevil on Tue Jul 11, 2017 1:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Title updated
Reason: Title updated
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
FAA OIS Page shows a groundstop for ZDC for "ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN THE CONTROL ROOM".
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Confirmed. DCA ATCT confirmed it I just was told, all departures into DCA, BWI and IAD are ground stopped. Whole ZDC airspace is shut down and they've evacuated.
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- bluefltspecial
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
SCHATC422 wrote:Confirmed. DCA ATCT confirmed it I just was told, all departures into DCA, BWI and IAD are ground stopped. Whole ZDC airspace is shut down and they've evacuated.
Well that might cause some delays...
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- canyonblue17
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Working my last flight from PBI to BWI - it just got popped with a 1-hour ground hold.
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- hufftheweevil
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
This is gunna throw quite a wrench into the evening operations. Here in PHL, pretty much all flights are being held at the gate. Several a/c out on the field, planning on bringing them back to the gate.
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- hufftheweevil
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
AA has requested airline-online GS into PHL
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- hufftheweevil
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
1st diversion from DCA: RPA4693 BGR-DCA diverting to PHL
And 1st cancellation (in PHL at least): RPA4469 PHL-DCA
And 1st cancellation (in PHL at least): RPA4469 PHL-DCA
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
RPA4562 (PIT-DCA) just cancelled.
Gonna be a long night...
Gonna be a long night...
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
There are still planes landing at Dulles right now. Is APCH stepping up amd handling everything in the area. I know PCTA has a huge area.
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- Wingtips56
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Well that explains why I got through to AA right away on an unrelated issue, but then when being transferred to International, I was on hold for 90 minutes with the endless loop of ads and blather, only to eventually give up and call back: that way I go on a queue and they will call me back when an agent becomes available. Way better than continuing to hold with that noise! But, the call back estimate is "in more than two hours".
NYC airports were already showing long delays in FlightAware, so the whole mid-Atlantic and North East must be tying up the lines for re-accommodation.
NYC airports were already showing long delays in FlightAware, so the whole mid-Atlantic and North East must be tying up the lines for re-accommodation.
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Potamac Tracon should be able to take arrivals that come in from the north but according the FAA OIS, ZDC (Washington DC Center) has put a stop on all new departures to all ZDC airports for the time being.
ZDC starts just south of PHL and extends down the seaboard to NC/SC state line and as far west as CRW. covering DCA/IAD/BWI DOV, South PHL arrivals, RDU, RIC, ORF and GSO. right now, NYC can't send any aircraft south, and will have to reroute them into oceanic airspace or around the west around SYR, BUF, and ROC.
ZDC starts just south of PHL and extends down the seaboard to NC/SC state line and as far west as CRW. covering DCA/IAD/BWI DOV, South PHL arrivals, RDU, RIC, ORF and GSO. right now, NYC can't send any aircraft south, and will have to reroute them into oceanic airspace or around the west around SYR, BUF, and ROC.
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- BelAviaFan
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Local fire officials directed the FAA to evacuate the Washington Center in Leesburg, VA at about 6:00 PM after fumes from construction work permeated the control room. The center handles high altitude flights over the area. The facility stopped accepting new flights and handed off airborne flights to other air traffic control facilities for safe landing. We are actively working to fully ventilate the facility. We will update the statement when we get new information.
http://www.luchtzak.be/miscellaneous/fi ... evacuated/
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- SiouxFlyer
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Some aircraft going into the airspace under 10,000ft. Talking to Potomac Approach instead of ZDC.
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- hufftheweevil
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
AA-specific GS lifted but still major issues with getting routes for PHL outbounds, even northbound flights. A couple more cancellations now.
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
The FAA has initiated new routes to avoid the ZDC airspace.
Florida ATL, and CLT to the NE (NYC and BOS) has been rerouted to the ROD (Rosewood) VOR, just north of Dayton, OH to avoid ZDC. all arrivals into the NE airports that would have gone over DC have been rerouted north to ROD...so that area will get very saturated,
Florida and SE to DC has been routed to PSK, CHO, and RIC to stay in TRACON airspace in order to avoid the center outage.
DC metros to the south are limited to going over ORF and then to ILM at or below 10,000 feet. passing ILM they can climb to normal cruise altitudes.
NYC metros and PHL to ZDC airports (like ROA, RDU, ORF, DC Metro, RIC, GSO etc. are routed along specific routes. initially climbing to 8000 feet to clear PHL, and then descending to 6000 feet for the rest of the flight- no faster than 250 knots.
By no means is the outage good, but this outage is being handled better than the Chicago center outage a few years ago- probably having to do with the density of low altitude ATC facilities on the east coast and the FAA developing more robust plans for this type of event after the Chicago outage. but the delays will still mount and all the DC metros are back in a ground stop.
Florida ATL, and CLT to the NE (NYC and BOS) has been rerouted to the ROD (Rosewood) VOR, just north of Dayton, OH to avoid ZDC. all arrivals into the NE airports that would have gone over DC have been rerouted north to ROD...so that area will get very saturated,
Florida and SE to DC has been routed to PSK, CHO, and RIC to stay in TRACON airspace in order to avoid the center outage.
DC metros to the south are limited to going over ORF and then to ILM at or below 10,000 feet. passing ILM they can climb to normal cruise altitudes.
NYC metros and PHL to ZDC airports (like ROA, RDU, ORF, DC Metro, RIC, GSO etc. are routed along specific routes. initially climbing to 8000 feet to clear PHL, and then descending to 6000 feet for the rest of the flight- no faster than 250 knots.
By no means is the outage good, but this outage is being handled better than the Chicago center outage a few years ago- probably having to do with the density of low altitude ATC facilities on the east coast and the FAA developing more robust plans for this type of event after the Chicago outage. but the delays will still mount and all the DC metros are back in a ground stop.
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- Southwest1137
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
BWI twitter was saying that the next update would be from the FAA at 10pm (local time) and that there are "serious issues" at ZDC. They were recommending that people re-book their flights completely, that sounds to me like they could be shut down for many more hours
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- smokeybandit
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Dan C.
@BoonDR
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@AirlineFlyer re:ZDC. adhesive from roof repair leaked in to attic-pumped through a/c to control room. burning eyes, sore throats, vomiting
7:48 PM - 10 Jul 2017
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atcsundevil
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
They've been doing roof work for a few weeks now, along with installing temporary cooling towers. The contractor is definitely doing to have some explaining to do. There were about a dozen engines and HAZMAT trucks on scene for about a couple of hours. Things should be back up and running now, but it was definitely not an ideal time for ATC Zero.
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- smokeybandit
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
The all clear was given at 9:18pm ET.
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atcsundevil
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
Web500sjc wrote:The FAA has initiated new routes to avoid the ZDC airspace.
Florida ATL, and CLT to the NE (NYC and BOS) has been rerouted to the ROD (Rosewood) VOR, just north of Dayton, OH to avoid ZDC. all arrivals into the NE airports that would have gone over DC have been rerouted north to ROD...so that area will get very saturated,
Florida and SE to DC has been routed to PSK, CHO, and RIC to stay in TRACON airspace in order to avoid the center outage.
DC metros to the south are limited to going over ORF and then to ILM at or below 10,000 feet. passing ILM they can climb to normal cruise altitudes.
NYC metros and PHL to ZDC airports (like ROA, RDU, ORF, DC Metro, RIC, GSO etc. are routed along specific routes. initially climbing to 8000 feet to clear PHL, and then descending to 6000 feet for the rest of the flight- no faster than 250 knots.
By no means is the outage good, but this outage is being handled better than the Chicago center outage a few years ago- probably having to do with the density of low altitude ATC facilities on the east coast and the FAA developing more robust plans for this type of event after the Chicago outage. but the delays will still mount and all the DC metros are back in a ground stop.
There is always a procedure for this stuff. Adjacent centers will reach out to aircraft to work them early, they'll descend aircraft so they become tower enroute, etc. Fortunately ATC Zero is extremely rare these days, but it used to be relatively common. Coordination is much easier these days too with cell phones in the event of a quick evacuation.
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- OslPhlWasChi
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fire?
smokeybandit wrote:The all clear was given at 9:18pm ET.
Flights have resumed here at DCA. But some of us are still looking at another hour or so of delays due to late incoming aircraft and congestion getting off the of here.
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
There are procedures, but Washington Center going down is just not workable for normal ops. Area is too dense and important. There is no normal until it is up and running.
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
This so sucks for the DC market. In particular crowded DCA.
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
Well, that explains the lack of planes over my house this evening. (I live next to DCA.)
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
The crazy thing is, is that airlines are required to have a secondary operations center in the event of a failure, yet, the FAA doesn't hold itself to the same standards.
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atcsundevil
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
f35 wrote:The crazy thing is, is that airlines are required to have a secondary operations center in the event of a failure, yet, the FAA doesn't hold itself to the same standards.
That kind of decision isn't up to the FAA, it's up to Congress. I don't think Congress is willing to fork over a half billion dollars of taxpayer money to construct a secondary ARTCC for ATC Zero events that are exceedingly rare these days. Even if they did, it would really only work if every center had a secondary facility. At that rate, they may as well drop $10bil to rebuild every center, but I find it extremely hard to believe Congress will do that.
Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
It's too bad that this didn't happen on a Thursday or Friday evening, when all the Congress critters are trying to get home.
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- capitalflyer
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Re: ZDC (Wash, DC) Center evacuated for fumes
WWads wrote:It's too bad that this didn't happen on a Thursday or Friday evening, when all the Congress critters are trying to get home.
If it is any solace, many were flying in after recess for session on Tuesday. So no doubt some got snagged in the ground stop.
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