IAH TRACON problem
 

Sitting on the taxiway at IAH. We have turned off engines and captain has announced that there is a smoke alarm going off at the IAH TRACON so all departures have stopped. Obviously being allowed to use electronic devices.

Glad I'm not flying through IAH this afternoon.

According to the FAA website:

Due to EQUIPMENT / OUTAGE, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport, Houston, TX (IAH).

Also:

Due to EQUIPMENT / OUTAGE, departure traffic destined to Houston William P Hobby Airport, Houston, TX (HOU) will not be allowed to depart until at or after 3:30 pm CDT.

Someone I know that works for CO reports that there is a fire in the ATC tower.

I am seeing some flights leaving now. Hopefully there is no lingering issue.

Stuff seems to be moving again. According to my contact (CO ramper) it was "the smell of smoke".

From KHOU.com

Air traffic has resumed at Bush Intercontinental Airport after an air traffic control tower was evacuated when smoke was detected in the tower. A backup facility is now operational Houston Airport System officials said.

Checking flightaware.com, traffic into and out of IAH was stopped for about an hour.

More interesting is that traffic into and out of HOU was stopped longer - about 1.5 hours.

Another friend of mine (air traffic controller) said smoke was reported in the TRACON and not the tower.

I had a similar experience at LHR last spring, though we were fortunately not onboard yet.

You should be. :td: I must say they are doing a good job at AUS reaccomodating people though..

There were actually very few diversions. And those few were mostly COEX or CO Connection flights.

Most of the mainlines were just put into a holding pattern in central or west Texas and waited it out before continuing to IAH.

Doesn't heklp that there are t-storms and heavy rain in H-town right now....delays will probably extend until the end of the weekend.

This is not an IAH-specific thing. It's all 'Houston Approach' and 'Houston Departure' on the radio. I think the code for the facility is ZHU.

A quick tally of mainline CO flights into IAH that were diverted:

SAT:
1606 SAN, 34 DEN,

CRP:
1477 TUS, 1872 MCO

AUS:
288 YVR, 396 LAS (not sure why this flight was on the ground at AUS for a long time)

DFW:
1589 DTW, 245 CLE, 23 EWR

LFT:
1833 LGA

MSY:
259 DCA, 657 PHL, 727 BWI

SHV:
797 LAX

Those are mainline diversions. More COEX and CO Connections were also diverted.

You are correct in the sense that the TRACON does control traffic into all Houston airports from Conroe to Galveston and 45 miles east and west of IAH. The TRACON is identified as I90, Houston Center on JFK Blvd is ZHU.