North Olympic Peninsula airports were closed Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all air traffic nationwide for the first time in U.S. history.
“I had a charter scheduled this morning,” said Port Angeles charter aviation owner Jeff Wells on Tuesday.
“When I arrived at the airport at 6:45 a.m., I was told the airspace was shut down. So I called the FAA and they told me all air traffic was prohibited and anything in the air would be considered hostile,” said Wells, owner of Rite Bros. Aviation.
He was scheduled to fly blood from local blood drives to Seattle on Tuesday evening.
The nationwide grounding will remain in effect until at least 9 a.m. today “at the very earliest,” according to an FAA spokesman.
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