All is well, this is not the AIpocalypse. Just some dude fucking up something stupid, as usual.
Update before I can no longer edit:
> The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines the nationwide outages that prompted the ground stop were the result of a problem with network routers, according to an airline source.
> The problem is believed to have started at Chicago Midway International Airport and cascaded nationwide.
> A spokeswoman for the military’s Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said there was no evidence yet that the telecommunication outage was the result of any nefarious action by domestic or foreign actors.
If there was an attack on your country, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing, just like it did 9/11.
All I am getting is pictures of baked cookies right now. So there is no attack on your country.
Planes are not falling out of the sky, as you can see on publicly available platforms. Nothing is exploding on the ground, besides the poor souls choosing Taco Bell for dinner.
I am confident you will not be abducted or murdered by Aliens today either, pinky promise.
So whatever happens is not an immediate danger to the planes still in the air. And no danger to anyone on the ground.
The most simple explanation is that the communication between ground and air is not working properly, and as this is necessary to safely fly thousands of planes simultaneously, they should rather stay on the ground for safety reasons until they figure out what is wrong.
If you have any specific concerns not addressed above, feel free to share them.