US ground stop follows Microsoft outage and Silicon Valley scandal

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 15 Nov, 05:31 · Archive

US authorities ordered all planes to land immediately on Friday after a Microsoft outage and reports of an AI billionaire's affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

US authorities ordered every plane across the country to land immediately on Friday afternoon, halting all air travel nationwide. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the ground stops by Saturday.

The ground stop came on a day marked by multiple disruptions. A major Microsoft outage had upended millions of workers' routines, while reports of an AI billionaire's alleged infidelity, including with a suspected Chinese spy, created chaos in Silicon Valley.

Travellers affected by the grounding expressed concern about the coinciding incidents. Chuck Amasio, 68, from Rahway, New Jersey, had his flight from Newark Liberty International Airport cancelled and spent the night in a hotel before returning to try again on Saturday. 'There's a lot of weird stuff going on,' he said. He speculated about modern threats: 'We talk about how wars aren't done with bombs anymore. They shut down airspace or a power grid. They can cripple an economy.'

Other events on Friday added to the sense of widespread disruption: a cruise ship overturned in New Orleans after being struck by a tanker, suspicious drones were spotted over a US air base in Britain, and a bomb was found near an ethanol plant in Ohio.

How it is being reported

• Could everything be broken? Grounded jets, Microsoft outage, AI chaos make some wonderAfter the Silicon Valley chaos spurred by reports of an AI billionaire's affair with a suspected Chinese spy and the Microsoft outage that upended millions of workers' days, Friday's air travel ground stop across the U.S. had many people feeling that something was up.Clickorlando · 15 Nov, 05:16
• Could everything be broken? Grounded jets, Microsoft outage, AI chaos make some wonderAfter the Silicon Valley chaos spurred by reports of an AI billionaire's affair with a suspected Chinese spy and the Microsoft outage that upended millions of workers' days, Friday's air travel ground stop across the U.S. had many people feeling that something was up.News4Jax · 15 Nov, 05:16

In this story: Microsoft · Federal Aviation Administration · Newark Liberty International Airport · New Orleans · Britain · Ohio

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem · Corrections log