Grounded Planes Call for Steady Hearts

Friday afternoon, the skies over America emptied. At 3:54 p.m. Eastern, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered every departing flight in the country to stay on the ground "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." More than 3,500 airplanes were already in the air. The order held for more than four hours, the longest nationwide ground stop since Sept. 11, 2001, and by the end of the day FlightAware counted more than 15,000 flights delayed or canceled.

Hoosiers felt it. Officials at Indianapolis International estimated 2,000 to 3,000 passengers on about 25 departing flights were stuck when the order came down, and 74 flights out of Indianapolis had been canceled by 9 p.m. In Evansville, dozens of travelers waited at the regional airport for answers. Dana Hendrix, who was trying to get to Maryland, told WFIE her group already had a plan: "We'll be okay. We have family in town and they're on their way to pick us back up." Her calm deserves a wider audience than the rumors are getting.

The grounding landed one day after a worldwide Microsoft outage knocked Outlook and Teams offline for governments, courts, hospitals and businesses in more than 70 countries. For weeks before either one, social media posts warned of a global blackout on Nov. 17, with power cut, the internet down for three months and bank accounts wiped to zero. With all of that in the air, plenty of people looked at an empty departures board and saw the opening act of something worse.

The Gospel of Luke describes that feeling with uncomfortable accuracy: "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." The facts so far give far less reason for that kind of fear, and Paul settled the deeper question for Timothy long ago.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. — 2 Timothy 1:7

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said radar and communications at air traffic centers began to falter at 3:36 p.m. when old switches and routers became overloaded with data and started giving inconsistent readings. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the FAA had been installing new equipment and patches that overwhelmed the older system. On the question of hackers, Mullin was direct: "There's no chatter, we haven't seen any footprints." He added that investigators, including the NSA, the Defense Department and CISA, were still looking and would not rule anything out. SecurityWeek, citing Bloomberg, reported that the FBI does not believe a cyberattack or criminal activity caused the outage and is examining a software update. Microsoft said its own outage was "not related to cyber," and Mullin said the two events were not connected.

The Nov. 17 blackout has a simpler explanation. At about 2:20 p.m. Eastern that Tuesday, which is 1:20 p.m. in Evansville and the rest of Indiana's Central-time counties, FEMA and the FCC will run a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. Radio and television programs will pause for a message that ends, "This is only a test. No action is required by the public." The cartoon "prediction" passed around with the rumor comes from a 2023 episode of The Simpsons about a fictional power cut.

None of that means the danger is imaginary. In July, CISA, the FBI and the EPA warned that Iranian-affiliated hackers have been disrupting industrial controllers at American water systems, energy companies and local governments, causing "operational disruption and financial loss." British officials confirmed this week that a small power facility there was shut down for four days in July after a cyberattack linked to Iran-nexus hackers, though they said the wider grid was never at risk. Duffy warned Friday that the country "will have more of these" outages unless Congress funds a new air traffic system, and he asked for $50 billion. A country that can put thousands of airliners in the sky at once should be able to keep their radios working, and money spent hardening America's own infrastructure is money spent on Americans.

The risk is real, then, and the right response is the one Scripture has recommended for nearly three thousand years.

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. — Proverbs 22:3

Solomon pointed the lazy man to the ant, "which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food." The ant does not wait for a press conference.

Preparation here is modest and cheap. The Indiana Department of Homeland Security asks every household to keep a kit for three days, since emergency crews may need that long to reach you. It should hold at least one gallon of water per person per day, three days of food that needs no cooking or refrigeration, a first aid kit with prescriptions, a flashlight with spare batteries, and a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, ideally a NOAA weather radio. The agency also recommends cash in small bills, because a power outage can mean no ATMs and no card readers, and it advises against candles. Ready.gov adds a few safety rules. Generators belong outdoors, at least 20 feet from windows and doors. Every level of the house needs a carbon monoxide detector with battery backup. A closed refrigerator keeps food cold for about four hours, and a full freezer holds for about 48. Anyone who depends on a powered medical device or refrigerated medicine should have a plan with a doctor now, before the lights flicker. Travelers whose flights are canceled are entitled to a full refund if they choose not to fly.

When Nehemiah's builders were threatened on the walls of Jerusalem, the record says they answered with two things at once.

Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. — Nehemiah 4:9

The prayer and the watch went together. Neither one replaced the other.

Prayer is where a frightened heart finds its footing. Paul told the Philippians what to do with worry.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7

The psalmist sang, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." And God made the invitation plain.

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. — Psalm 50:15

The God of heaven wants to protect His people. He waits to be asked. Jeremiah told exiles in a foreign city to "pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace," and that counsel fits Terre Haute and Evansville just as well. The controllers rebuilding the schedule need those prayers. So do the engineers hunting the fault and the travelers sleeping in terminal hallways.

Fear has never filled a water jug or calmed a child. A few gallons in the basement, a radio on the shelf and a family on its knees will do far more good this week than a thousand shares of the next rumor.