The planes were perfectly capable of flying. I haven't seen what the issue was but it's equally likely that it was a problem with the reservation system, the pricing system, the weight/balance calculators (admittedly I wouldn't want to fly with this being wonky), even the shift scheduling for backup flight crews.

There is no remote management of planes. Nobody at ATC or on the ground can prevent a plane from doing anything the pilot wants to make the plane do.