NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration briefly suspended flights to New York City-area airports on Saturday because of coronavirus-related staffing issues.
After a trainee at Ronkonkoma, a regional air-traffic control hub on Long Island, tested positive for the disease, flights were disrupted for the entire area.
In an alert posted online, the FAA advised air traffic controllers to “stop all departures” to Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark, and other airports in the region because of staffing issues at the Ronkonkoma facility, which the agency says primarily handles high-altitude, cross-country flights.
The halt, which also affected Philadelphia’s airport, was lifted after about 30 minutes. Controllers were initially warned it could last several hours.
In a statement, the FAA said the Ronkonkoma facility remains open. The agency said the trainee was last there on Tuesday, and that it is working to figure out what other workers he may have interacted with.
Earlier this week, air traffic controllers at JFK operated from an alternate location on airport property after a technician assigned to the airport’s control tower tested positive for COVID-19.
In that case, the FAA said that the technician hadn’t been to work since March 11, and that controllers returned to the tower after precautionary cleaning.
LATEST STORIES
- Did the Facebook app force log you out, too?
- 1 dead, 2 critical after bus bound for Grand Canyon rolls over
- Rep. Ocasio-Cortez responds to arrest of Capitol riot suspect who allegedly said ‘Assassinate AOC’
- A year after Wuhan lockdown, a world still deep in crisis
- SLIDESHOW: Funny memes of Bernie Sanders and his Inaugural mittens is the gift that keeps on giving
