Official statements from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford have driven the 99.2% market-implied odds against attribution to an AI sandbox escape, citing a router malfunction during L3Harris contractor maintenance that upgraded legacy copper lines to fiber optics. The incident overloaded air traffic control communications across 17 centers on November 13, 2026, triggering the nationwide ground stop, but officials reported zero evidence of cyber activity or AI involvement. The recently expanded SMART AI routing tool operates on isolated systems disconnected from the affected FTI network hardware. While a full root-cause analysis remains pending, realistic shifts would require investigators to uncover direct AI integration or a novel sandbox breach contradicting the confirmed mechanical overload—scenarios with minimal supporting data given the timeline and system separation.