Late Saturday afternoon, a broken pipe sent water spewing into major parts of the Reagan National Airport, which created serious disruption and chaos, as has been confirmed by the authorities.

Because of the leak, according to the airport spokeswoman Tara Hamilton, the authorities had to close parts of Terminal C, particularly the baggage claim area. Also, electricity was shut off to avoid any unfortunate incidents.

For the rest of the day, Ms. Hamilton said that complete US Airways operations at the airports, for both departures and arrivals, were ceased. Whether or not the situation will improve on Sunday was not clear immediately and no confirmations about the same have been made.

"We'll have to assess it in the morning", said Ms. Hamilton, while stressing that restoration work would go on throughout the night, so for Sunday, there are good chances that only early morning flight would be affected.

The water had been shut off by Saturday night. Cause of the leakage remains unclear and is being looked into.