DALLAS — The Federal Aviation Administration closed Dallas Love Field to arriving and departing flights Saturday night, and the closure is scheduled to remain in effect until 6 a.m. Sunday, according to the FAA’s National Airspace System status feed.
The closure took effect at 8:29 p.m. CST under FAA notice !DAL 11/044, which lists the airport as closed until 12:00 UTC Sunday. The FAA’s status feed states no reason for the closure.
In air traffic control audio recorded Saturday night, a controller working inbound flights told pilots, “Love Tower is closing the airport. I believe there was a bomb threat or something like that, so standby.” The controller then cancelled approach clearances for inbound Southwest Airlines flights and held them away from the airport.
Dallas police, the airport and the City of Dallas had issued no public statement on the reason for the closure as of late Saturday night. No official statement addressed any evacuation or any injuries, and neither could be confirmed.
Love Field is owned by the City of Dallas and is the home base of Southwest Airlines. The airport was also shut a day earlier, on Friday, when the FAA halted flights nationwide over a telecommunications outage; the FAA lifted that ground stop Friday night.
This story is based on the FAA’s National Airspace System status feed and air traffic control recordings from Saturday night.
LIVE UPDATE — FAA National Airspace System status feed, Saturday night:
“Airport Closure — DAL — !DAL 11/044 DAL AD AP CLSD 2611150229-2611151200 — Start: Nov 15 at 02:29 UTC — Reopen: Nov 15 at 12:00 UTC.”
LIVE UPDATE — Controller working inbound flights, in recorded air traffic control audio Saturday night:
“Love Tower is closing the airport. I believe there was a bomb threat or something like that, so standby.”
