[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Pilots within certain altitude guidelines over that entire geographic area were unable to communicate with Houston Center air traffic controllers for the entire four-minute duration of his conversation since his headset microphone was stuck.

After the pilot's microphone finally disengaged, other airline pilots then broadcast messages to Houston Center air traffic controllers, trying to catch up on flight instructions that they were unable to exchange during the broadcast.

So the fact that other pilots were unable to contact the Air Traffic Control Tower is not important?

[Bigun]

That is part of the sensationalism being engaged in here. There are ALWAYS alternate channels for these communications and they are in place for just this sort of an event. It happens ALL the time. If the truth be known, I doubt that any meaningful communications were disrupted for more than a few seconds.