The Lexington Institute's Loren Thompson says those mishaps usually result from a simple break in the line-of-sight connection between a plane and the satellite that controls it--often when one of the aircraft's own wings maneuvers into the path of the signal.

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When a plane returns to the gate, the flight has to get in line again for takeoff.

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B. had a cable TV in his office, and we gathered that Tuesday morning, some of us just in from the Green Line with our morning coffee, when he came down the hall to tell everyone that a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

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