Hoobastank, Simple Plan, and more artists play mid-air concert amid FAA ground stop
Hoobastank, Simple Plan, and more artists play mid-air concert amid FAA ground stop
Daysia TolentinoSat, November 14, 2026 at 4:40 PM UTC
0
Doug Robb of Hoobastank; Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan; and Bert McCracken of The UsedCredit: Greg Doherty/Getty; Mariano Regidor/Redferns; Dana Jacobs/WireImageKey Points -
Hoobastank, Simple Plan, The Used, and LØLØ held an impromptu mid-air concert on a Southwest flight on Friday.
The bands narrowly missed the nationwide ground stop on Friday, which lasted for four hours and resulted in thousands of cancelled flights.
The artists were on their way to the Vans Warped Tour stop in Orlando.
While thousands of flights were cancelled amid a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday, passengers on one Southwest flight were lucky enough to take off — with some in-flight entertainment.
Hoobastank, Simple Plan, The Used, and LØLØ gave impromptu performances on their flight to Orlando, which narrowly missed the ground stop. The artists were heading to the next leg of the Vans Warped Tour, where they are scheduled to appear this weekend.
Hoobastank performed their 2004 hit “The Reason” as well as their 2001 track “Crawling in the Dark.” Vocalist Doug Robb made his way down the plane’s center aisle as he sang, as depicted in a video shared to Vans Warped Tour’s Instagram Story.
Meanwhile, Simple Plan frontman Pierre Bouvier gave an acoustic rendition of the band’s songs “Perfect” and “I’m Just a Kid.” Fellow Warped Tour band The Used performed “The Taste of Ink” and singer LØLØ sang “hot girls in hell.”
On Saturday, LØLØ gave more insight into the flight, which she said was “a special chartered plane filled only with people on their way to warped tour.”
“those with wifi found out about the ground stop while we were at 35k feet and we were all pretty freaked out but how can you really be freaked out when pierre sounds this good?” she wrote in an Instagram Reel on Saturday, which showed the Simple Plan vocalist performing.
Advertisement
Hoobastank vocalist Doug Robb sings during a mid-air concert on a Southwest flight on Nov. 13Credit: Vans Warped Tour/Instagram
Cutting to a clip of a woman holding up a phone to an amp, LØLØ added, “they had someone hold up the phone flight attendants use to make announcements to the speaker so the whole plane could hear.”
The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for four hours on Friday, resulting in over 12,500 cancelled flights. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the mishap on outdated air traffic control technology, according to ABC News.
Vans Warped Tour Orlando is set to run from Nov. 14 to 15. Ahead of the first sets on Saturday, Warped Tour founder and producer Kevin Lyman shared an update on how the FAA ground stop would impact the weekend.
Simple Plan vocalist Pierre Bouvier sings during a mid-air concert on a Southwest flight on Nov. 13Credit: Vans Warped Tour/Instagram
“We will have a few bands cancelling and we will be updating you on that,” he said in an Instagram Reel. “Not as many as we thought because the bands are working hard to change their flights. Some bands have jumped in vans and [are] driving from as far away as Chicago and Houston.
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
He continued, adding, “We’re going to push some bands that were playing today, [they] will be playing on Sunday. We’ve extended the sets out and giving bands more time to play. Bear with us. We’re all working hard.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
