Why a light gun?
On Friday 13 November 2026, a telecommunications outage at the FAA's en-route control centers led to the third nationwide ground stop in US history. Thousands of flights were in the air, airports ran out of gates, and planes ended up parked on taxiways. LIGHT GUN was built the next day to answer one question: what if you had to land them with no radio at all?
Every staffed control tower keeps a signal lamp for that situation. It has six signals, each with one meaning for planes in the air and another for planes on the ground. Those twelve meanings are the controls of the game. Everything else (the airports, the flights, fuel loads and alternates) is fictional and randomized.
How to play
- Select an aircraft by tapping it, tapping its flight strip, or pressing Q/E.
- Signal it with one of the six lights (keys 1–6).
- Land planes with steady green. Pilots space themselves on final, but if the runway is blocked when they reach the decision point, they go around.
- Taxi landed planes off the exit with flashing green so the next one can roll through. Heavies need H gates, remote stands or taxiway spots.
- Divert planes you can't park with flashing red. They need enough fuel to reach an alternate that still has room.
- Return stranded departures to their gates with flashing white. A departure lined up on the runway can also be cleared off with flashing red.
- Never aim steady green at a departure. On the ground it means cleared for takeoff, and that breaks the ground stop. Three strikes (illegal takeoffs or fuel MAYDAYs) and you're relieved of duty.
Scoring
Touchdown +60 · gate or remote stand +40 · taxiway parking +10 · diversion +40 · departure returned +50 · medical flight landed within 45 min +50 · go-around −25 · confusing signal −10 · −1 for every 3 seconds each plane sits waiting on the ground. Pro mode multiplies the total by 1.5. Stars: 1 for finishing, 2 for 70% of the maximum with at most 1 strike, 3 for 86% with no strikes.
Honesty notes
- The real 2026 outage hit the en-route centers, not local towers. The game imagines the worse case where the tower's radio dies too.
- Real light-gun use is rare, and real controllers coordinate with phones, backup radios and neighbouring facilities. The game skips all of that to focus on the lights.
- Time is compressed: one second of play is one minute on the clock and in the fuel gauges.
- This is a game, not flight training or official guidance.
Sources
- Wikipedia: 2026 US national ground stop
- CBS News: FAA issues nationwide ground stop due to "extraordinary circumstances"
- NBC News: FAA orders nationwide ground stop for all departing flights
- PBS NewsHour: FAA grounds all flights at US airports
- ABC News: FAA issues rare nationwide ground stop
- MPR News: FAA grounds all departing flights nationwide
- Paddle Your Own Kanoo: FAA announces ground stop
- Upgraded Points: FAA grounds all US flights
- 14 CFR §91.125, ATC light signals (Cornell LII)
- Wikipedia: Aviation light signals
- Pilot Institute: Light gun signals guide
- Wikipedia: 2023 FAA system outage
- NPR: A damaged file may have caused the FAA outage
- Wikipedia: Operation Yellow Ribbon
- FAA: Air Traffic by the Numbers
Credits
Design, code, illustrations and sound by the daily web studio at dailyma.de. Fonts: Archivo and JetBrains Mono via Google Fonts. No trackers, no cookies. Progress and best scores stay in your browser's local storage.