Stranded Australians defend floppy disks in US ground-stop report

9 News correspondent Reid Butler brings an old storage disk to a crowded Los Angeles terminal and gets an unexpected response.

Channel: 9 News Australia Story of November 15, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 369,892 views a day, 37 times a normal first day on this channel (9,966).

Is outdated tech to blame for the nationwide ground stop in the US? | 9 News Australia

Next story: Warner challenges who was interviewed in Sandpapergate inquiry

The floppy disk has defenders. Waiting to fly home to Brisbane, two Australian travellers give Reid Butler a different answer from the one his question might suggest.

The 9 News Australia correspondent holds up a disk while describing the continued use of older technology, including handwritten flight records, in US air traffic control. Around him, passengers are caught in the nationwide departure halt.

Asked about floppy disks, the first traveller responds: "Bring it back!" He jokes about their resistance to hacking. His companion reaches for a different argument: memories of Windows 98 and the reassurance of something physical.

Their responses turn a report about ageing infrastructure into a brief exchange about whether newer necessarily means more dependable. Neither the travellers' answers nor the disk in Butler's hand establishes what caused the communications failure, and the clip does not resolve its title's question.

The Short has drawn roughly 327,000 views in 18 hours, far beyond the channel's usual first-day audience for that format. It sits alongside other unusually widely watched 9 News Australia reports on the departure halt and Australians stranded by it, with Butler's terminal encounter offering a distinctly Australian response to the technology question.

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More from 9 News AustraliaOn today's chart 40K views since yesterdayWarner challenges who was interviewed in Sandpapergate inquiry9 News Australia's Today segment examines his cover-up allegation alongside Cricket Australia's response that every player had an opportunity to speak.Channel: 9 News Australia · Story of November 15, 2026 Also in News networks and broadcastersVideo taking off 20x its usual first dayKallas defends EU negotiating role and insists on ceasefire firstTimes Now World's report captures her warning that concessions on European security would weaken the bloc's position before Ukraine peace talks.Channel: Times Now World · Story of November 15, 2026 A different discovery todayVideo taking off 5x its usual first dayCaptain Steeeve traces the FAA ground stop to a system called ERAMFilmed at Detroit Metro Airport, his explainer runs from a failed network update to what pilots do when the radio goes quiet.Channel: Captain Steeeve · Story of November 15, 2026

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Stranded Australians defend floppy disks in US ground-stop report The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/9newsaus-37419/

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The numbers

The floppy-disk report is drawing far more views than a usual 9 News Australia Short. The channel's longer coverage of the US ground stop has also had an unusually strong start.

the video's first day

usual first day here

9,966

this video

369,892

subscribers

1,910,000

▲ 10,000 in the last 7 days

total views

1,741,959,686

views per day

2,078,852

typical day: 1,994,784

the video

views

326,869

likes

514

comments

123

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

AccuWeather

2,190,000

Localish

2,170,000

Onlooker UK

2,120,000

C-SPAN

1,990,000

9 News Australia

1,910,000

CBS Sunday Morning

1,890,000

As of November 15, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.