Topic: Aircraft Grounding

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all domestic departures on January 11, 2023, following a system outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. While officials attributed the failure to a corrupted file during maintenance, skepticism remains regarding the simultaneous outage of the Canadian NOTAM system. Observations of increased military jet and air refueler activity during the grounding suggest potential undisclosed operations or a "money grab" by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to secure funding for FAA modernization.

Flights in Phoenix were grounded during a record heat wave, officially attributed to changes in air density affecting lift. However, alternative theories suggest that modern composite or "plastic" planes face structural risks on the tarmac when temperatures exceed 130 degrees. Older sheet metal aircraft with rivets are reportedly less susceptible to heat-related safety issues than newer composite models.