可以说，这是全国航班停飞最糟糕的时机之一：周五下午晚些时候，正值人们赶往机场开始周末短途旅行或结束商务行程返家。
By Brian Eckhouse, Greg Ryan, Alicia A. Caldwell and Miranda Davis It was arguably one of the worst times for a nationwide flight grounding: Friday, late afternoon, just as people were heading to airports for weekend jaunts or to return home from business trips.
联邦航空管理局（FAA）于美国东部时间下午 4 点左右发布的停飞令，导致全国各地的乘客滞留在停机坪和航站楼，等待航班何时起飞——甚至是否能起飞——的消息。
The ground stop from the Federal Aviation Administration, called around 4 p.m. Eastern time, left passengers across the country stranded on tarmacs and stuck in terminals awaiting news of when — or if — their flights would take off.
周五晚间，在纽约拉瓜迪亚机场的联合航空航站楼，找不到一个空座位，酒吧里挤满了等待消息的乘客。在芝加哥奥黑尔国际机场，客服柜台前排起了长龙。而在达拉斯拉夫机场，一个安检通道的景象在周末来临之际显得罕见：完全空无一人。
At New York’s LaGuardia Airport Friday evening, there wasn’t a seat to be found in the United Airlines terminal and bars were packed as passengers waited out news. Lines snaked around customer service at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. At Dallas Love Field, the scene at one security checkpoint was a rarity heading into the weekend: completely barren.
联邦航空管理局在停飞令发布四个多小时后解除了该令。但到那时，旅客已花费数小时盯着航班信息屏幕，看着预计时间不断推迟，权衡还要等多久才会放弃。对一些人来说，这意味着要迅速算计：是继续守候、指望航班恢复，还是开始与其他滞留旅客抢订酒店房间、租车或寻找其他回家方式。
The FAA lifted the ground stop just over four hours after it began. But by then, travelers had spent hours watching flight boards with estimated times ticking up and weighing how long they would wait before giving up. For some, that meant a quick calculation whether to stick it out and hope flights would resume, or start racing fellow stranded travelers for hotel rooms, rental cars or other ways home.
“我完全不知道发生了什么，”试图从约翰·肯尼迪国际机场飞往佛罗里达州劳德代尔堡观看周五晚场演出的布鲁克林居民 Bernadeta Serafin 说，“我能怎么办？”
“I have no idea what’s happening,” said Bernadeta Serafin, a Brooklyn resident who was trying to get to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from John F. Kennedy International Airport to see a Friday night show. “What can I do?”
这次全国性停飞——美国历史上仅有的第三次——发生在一个已经充满重大科技相关事件的周末尾声：从 AI 领域最具影响力的人物之一黄仁勋的跌落，到微软公司包括 Outlook、Teams 和 Copilot 在内的产品大面积瘫痪。交通部长 Sean Duffy 表示，此次航班停飞源于因数据过载导致的通信中断。
The nationwide ground stop — only the third in US history — came at the end of what had already been a remarkable week of tech-related events, from the downfall of Jensen Huang, one of the most powerful names in AI, to a widespread outage of Microsoft Corp. products including Outlook, Teams and Copilot. The flight shutdown stemmed from a communications outage tied to a data overload, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
国土安全部部长马克韦恩·马林在停飞令发布后不久告诉记者，没有迹象表明存在威胁。微软表示，没有迹象显示此事与其任何服务有关。由于缺乏关于发生了什么的细节，谣言和闲话填补了真空。
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters just after the ground stop that there was no indication of a threat. Microsoft said there was no sign it was tied to any of its services. With few details of what was happening, rumors and gossip filled the vacuum.
“昨天电子邮件全都瘫痪了，我有点不敢坐飞机，”劳伦·斯克拉林说，她当时在肯尼迪机场等待飞往佛罗里达州西棕榈滩的航班。她急于赶到德尔雷比奇的新公寓——家具定于周六送达。
“I’m a little bit nervous to fly because yesterday the emails were all down,” said Lauren Sklarin, who was at JFK awaiting a flight to West Palm Beach, Florida. She was eager to get to her new condo in Delray Beach — a furniture delivery was arriving Saturday.
航空公司现在面临在停飞后恢复时刻表的挑战，随着承运人努力让飞机和机组人员重新就位，延误和取消可能会在航空系统中连锁反应数小时。
Airlines now face the challenge of restoring their schedules after the shutdown, with delays and cancellations potentially rippling through the aviation system for hours as carriers work to get aircraft and crews back into position.
一些纽约乘客不得不连续第二个晚上忍受出行混乱，此前周四的暴风雨天气导致航班取消。桑德·布拉德原定周四晚间飞回圣地亚哥地区，此前他与朋友出游。直到凌晨2点他才找到一家酒店——最终住在皇后区的弗洛拉尔帕克。如果他再次被困，他不知道该怎么办。
Some passengers in New York had to endure a second straight evening of travel tumult after stormy weather caused flight cancellations Thursday. Xander Blood was supposed to fly home to the San Diego area Thursday evening after a trip with friends. It took him until 2 a.m. to find a hotel — ending up in Floral Park, Queens. He didn’t know what he’d do if he’s stuck again.
“这是第二天了，”布拉德说，“真倒霉。”马特·克尔斯滕自周三起在波士顿参加医学会议，距离波士顿洛根国际机场约10分钟车程，准备搭乘返回夏洛特的航班时，得知了故障消息。他在考虑是否过安检与一位同事汇合，还是预订租车开车去费城郊外他哥哥家。
“This is the second day,” Blood said. “It’s a bummer.”Matt Kersten, in Boston for a medical conference since Wednesday, was about 10 minutes from Boston Logan International Airport for a return flight to Charlotte when he heard about the outage. He was debating whether to go through security to join one of his colleagues or to book a rental car so he can drive to his brother’s home outside of Philadelphia.
“如果我租了车，开两小时后航班恢复了，我会后悔莫及，”他说。但他担心如果等待，会出现租车短缺。
“I’ll be kicking myself if I get a car and two hours out on the road” the flight’s back on, he said. But he’s afraid that if he waits, there will be a car shortage.
已经登机的乘客面临另一种形式的困境。达美航空一架飞往弗吉尼亚州里士满的航班在拉瓜迪亚机场排队起飞时，机长告知乘客通信故障，并驶回航站楼方向。但因到达的飞机占用了登机口，飞机无处停放，乘客只能在机上坐上数小时，分享零食、商量备选方案。
Passengers already aboard planes faced a different sort of limbo. A Delta Air Lines Inc. flight bound for Richmond, Virginia, had been in line for takeoff at LaGuardia when the pilot told passengers of the communications issue and headed back toward the terminal. But with arriving planes occupying gates, there was nowhere to park, leaving passengers to sit on the plane for hours sharing snacks and making backup plans.
米歇尔·奥蒂正从加利福尼亚州飞往波士顿，距离降落还有约20分钟时，手机收到关于美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）下令停飞的提醒。她说机组人员没有通过广播确认此事，只能自己上网搜索才弄清状况。
Michelle Otey was on her way to Boston from California and about 20 minutes from landing when she got an alert on her phone about the FAA ground stop. The flight crew didn’t make an announcement acknowledging it, she said, leaving her to search online to figure out what was happening.
“如果没有空管指挥，飞机怎么降落？”她纳闷道。“难道我们在盲飞？”该航班最终正常降落。
“How are we landing a plane without air traffic control?” she wondered. “We’re just winging it?”The flight ultimately landed normally.
在芝加哥，梅丽莎·德泽莱托维奇带着15岁的儿子卢卡来到奥黑尔机场，这是他第一次独自乘飞机——去亚特兰大看望表亲。他已登机，起飞前几分钟给妈妈打电话说出了问题。德泽莱托维奇决定带他回家，改期出行。
In Chicago, Melissa Dzeletovic had taken her 15-year-old son, Luka, to O’Hare for his first flight by himself — a trip to visit a cousin in Atlanta. He boarded the plane and moments before they were set to take off he called his mom and told her there was an issue. Dzeletovic decided to take him back home and reschedule the trip.
“他在飞机上待了约10到15分钟，然后被要求下机，在登机口等了几个小时，”她说。“我要带他走，因为我已经为他身处这种境地感到担心。”来自丹佛的八年级数学老师柯克·弗拉姆克带领一大群学生抵达洛杉矶国际机场，他们刚从圣卡塔利娜岛的海洋生物夏令营返回。学生们的手机被收在领队的包里，完全不知发生了什么。
“He was on the plane for about 10 to 15 minutes, and then they asked them to get off the plane, and he’s been waiting by the gate for a couple of hours,” she said. “I’m going to take him because I’m already nervous that he’s in this situation.”Kirk Framke, an eighth grade math teacher from Denver, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport with a large group of students returning from a marine biology camp on Catalina Island. With their cell phones stashed in a chaperone’s bag, the students had no idea what was happening.
“整个美国没有任何航班起飞，”弗拉姆克告诉他们，引来一片抱怨和一声清晰的“啥？”弗拉姆克说，学校方面正在安排包租一辆大巴，如果周五无法搭乘航班回家，就开这 1000 英里、需 15 小时的路程返回丹佛。与此同时，大家打算在值机区叫披萨，并拿出“爆炸猫”和“塔可猫”等桌游打发时间。
“There are no flights taking off anywhere in the entire United States,” Framke told them, prompting groans and an audible “What?”Framke said school officials were making arrangements for a charter bus to make the 1,000-mile, 15-hour drive back to Denver, if they weren’t able to get a flight home Friday. In the meantime, the group planned to order pizzas to the check-in area and break out games such as Exploding Kittens and Taco Cat.