‘Hot mess for Americans’: Mississippi Senator-elect Scott Colom stranded at Atlanta Airport amid Delta Pilot shortage and FAA ground stop

Detailed summary

Democrat Scott Colom, who made history by becoming Mississippi's first black senator since 1881, has revealed that he is stranded at Atlanta Airport.

Democrat Scott Colom, who made history with his election to the US Senate by becoming Mississippi's first black senator since 1881, has revealed that he is stranded at Atlanta Airport amid a Delta pilot shortage. This comes following a nationwide FAA ground stop that reportedly caused 9,000 flight cancellations.

“I’m at the ATL airport and my @Delta flight has been continuously delayed because they can’t find another pilot. It’s midnight and they don’t know when or if they’ll find another pilot but won’t give out hotel vouchers until the flight is cancelled, which they can’t say when that’ll happen. This is a hot mess for Americans,” he wrote on X.

“One of them just said, “pick another flight…pick another transportation secretary,” he added.

President Donald Trump previously praised Colom for courting some of his supporters in the final days of the midterm election campaign.

When Trump traveled to Corinth, Mississippi, last month to campaign for incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, he called Colom a “Marxist radical,” a “fake” and a “shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate.” However, during an appearance on Stephen A. Smith’s ‘Straight Shooter’ podcast, he later praised Colom for showing up to the Trump rally to mingle with some of the president’s supporters.

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“I heard it the other day, where I had a rally there, and we had lines that went 10 miles long, and he campaigned on that line, telling everybody on the line what a good job he did,” Trump said of Colom. “I give him a lot of credit for that.”

MIA continues to face delays and cancellations after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights across the country due to a communications issue. On Friday night, November 13, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that flight operations would be slow to return to normal. Airlines were working to reposition aircraft and crews.

FAA…

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