AMERICA MISSED ITS CONNECTION

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An airplane needs more than working engines. Controllers must reliably communicate with pilots to keep traffic moving safely.

When those communications become unreliable, keeping departures on the ground prevents more planes joining the problem.

On 13 November, the Federal Aviation Administration halted departures nationwide for about 5 hours. Officials blamed new technology overwhelming older equipment, producing intermittent communications and radar gaps.

The cause remained under investigation.

The transportation secretary said the new equipment stayed operational and the failures involved old equipment. He also said the new artificial intelligence system, designed to help predict problems in the sky, was not connected to what failed.

So Lil'meme is administering CPR to a copper wire. Apparently America's connecting flight needed a connecting cable with a pulse.

At least 827 flights had been diverted by 7:05 p.m. EST, according to aviation analytics company Cirium, cited by AP.

That included 670 returning to their departure airport and 157 going elsewhere.

The useful distinction: officials blaming aging equipment is not a completed investigation, and a new AI system existing nearby is not evidence it caused the outage. Upgrading the dashboard does not automatically replace the plumbing behind it.

Source: AP, 13 November 2026.

https://apnews.com/article/flights-halted-airports-faa-f81b0904331dafad6133f291e5f531a8