Carolyn McAtee Cerbin

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Operations at the three major airports around the nation's capital will soon resume, the Federal Aviation Administration said via Twitter Monday night.

The agency offered the statement after construction fumes in the control facility that handles high-altitude flights over the Washington, D.C., area led to a temporary ground stop for three major airports around the nation's capital, officials said.

In the Monday night statement, the FAA said the fire department in Leesburg, Va., cleared air traffic controllers for the Dulles International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport to resume their posts at an FAA facility in that community.

Earlier, the FAA reported flights from Dulles were being held at the gate and experiencing taxi delays from an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes. At Reagan, the wait was up to two hours.

The Washington Center in Leesburg, 30 miles west of Washington, was evacuated by local fire officials after fumes from construction work permeated the control room, according to the FAA.

The facility, which controls high-altitude flights over the area, stopped accepting new flights and handed off to other air traffic control facilities, the FAA said in a statement.

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