Passengers Stuck During Nationwide FAA Grounding Got 'A Free Hoobastank Show' With Simple Plan and the Used

A Southwest flight concert featuring Hoobastank, Simple Plan, The Used and LØLØ took place on Friday, 13 November, after the aircraft left Los Angeles for Orlando ahead of a nationwide Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ground stop.

The musicians were travelling to Florida for Vans Warped Tour's Orlando shows on 14 and 15 November. Their plane was already airborne when the FAA halted departures across the United States, leaving other travellers facing widespread cancellations and delays.

The performances were part of Southwest Airlines' 'Live at 35' programme, rather than a concert hastily arranged because of the disruption. The airline launched the series in 2011 to bring live music into aircraft cabins.

Hoobastank and Simple Plan Bring Southwest Flight Concert to Life

Footage shared on social media showed Hoobastank frontman Doug Robb walking through the aisle singing 'The Reason', accompanied by guitarist Dan Estrin. Passengers held up their phones and joined the singalong as Robb also performed 'Crawling in the Dark'.

The Used's Bert McCracken performed 'All That I've Got' and 'The Taste of Ink', while Simple Plan singer Pierre Bouvier played acoustic versions of 'Perfect' and 'I'm Just a Kid'. LØLØ added her song 'hot girls in hell' to the airborne line-up.

Passenger Tori Kravitz shared footage of Simple Plan's performance and described it as a childhood dream come true. Before boarding, travellers on the special Warped Tour flight had also encountered karaoke, meet-and-greets and festival-themed gifts.

LØLØ later said passengers who had Wi-Fi discovered the ground stop while the aircraft was at 35,000 feet. They were worried, she explained, but Bouvier's performance helped lift the mood.

'Every plane was grounded today, but the emo gods made sure this one flew,' she wrote on Instagram. Her description reflected the scale of the disruption, rather than a literal grounding of aircraft already in flight.

Robb subsequently described the atmosphere to Rocksound as 'a tube of happy people'. The cabin performances offered an unusual festival preview during a nationwide aviation shutdown.

FAA Ground Stop Disrupts Vans Warped Tour Travel Plans

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said instability affecting US air traffic control radar and communications began at 3.36 p.m. Eastern on Friday. The FAA subsequently ordered a nationwide ground stop as a safety precaution.

The restriction was lifted at 8.15 p.m. Eastern. Duffy warned that airlines would still need time to reposition aircraft and arrange available crews, prolonging disruption after departures resumed.

On Saturday, 14 November, Duffy said investigators were examining whether an installation error or defective router caused the telecommunications problem during equipment replacement work. Officials had not established a definitive cause.

The effects extended to Orlando's Vans Warped Tour. Festival founder Kevin Lyman warned that some bands might be unable to appear and said musicians were changing flights or driving long distances.

'Some bands have jumped in vans and [are] driving from as far away as Chicago and Houston,' Lyman said in a video update.

Organisers planned to move some Saturday performances to Sunday and lengthen other sets. The exact number of acts ultimately affected was not confirmed in Lyman's update.