Why did the air traffic control outage cause so much havoc?

A brief 20-minute glitch in air traffic control systems on Wednesday spiraled into widespread airport chaos, with delays and cancellations rippling across flights. While the outage was short, its impact lingered for hours, leaving travelers stranded and airlines scrambling. Officials are still piecing together exactly what went wrong, but it highlights just how fragile our air travel system can be when one critical piece stumbles.