Incoming and outgoing air traffic at the state's largest airport was suspended for part of the day Monday to allow a regional air traffic control center to be closed for a covid-19 cleaning.
The "ground stop" order from the Federal Aviation Administration came during a midday lull in flights at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport and didn't seem to appreciably affect flights.
An FAA website set up to monitor flight delays showed that traffic at Clinton National was delayed for up to 15 minutes.
At 12:51 p.m., a statement was posted on the Twitter account of Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field stating that the FAA had issued the ground stop for Clinton National and other nearby commercial service airports because the agency's Air Route Traffic Control Center in Memphis was closed to allow it to be cleaned and disinfected to prevent the spread of covid-19.
"All incoming and outgoing traffic will be suspended until the order is lifted at approximately 2:30 p.m," the statement said.
The decision to close and clean the center came the same day one or more FAA employees assigned to the facility tested positive for the coronavirus. It was the 17th time one or more agency employees there had tested positive since April 4, according to agency data. It was the fourth day this month in which personnel at the facility had tested positive.
"The FAA has a robust contingency plan for every air traffic control facility, and remains positioned to quickly address the effects of the COVID-19 public health emergency," the FAA said in a statement. "The agency continually monitors controller staffing and traffic demand, and remains in close contact with airports, airlines and other stakeholders so we can prioritize our resources to meet the greatest demand."
The Memphis center is one of 23 such facilities the FAA operates around the nation to monitor air traffic. Its area of responsibility includes almost all of Arkansas, much of Mississippi, west Tennessee and small areas of Missouri, Kentucky and Georgia.
The order also affected Memphis International Airport, among others in the region.
Ground stop orders are not uncommon. The most famous was the one issued for the entire United States on Sept. 11, 2001, following the terrorist attacks in which two highjacked airliners were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and another into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Most ground stop orders are limited in scope like the one for the Memphis center. Reasons can include "in the event a facility is unable or partially unable to perform ATC [air traffic control] services due to unforeseen circumstances," according to the FAA website.
The agency said some of the airspace monitored by of the Memphis center was shifted to other control towers in the region, including the one at Clinton National.