I'm guessing that doesn't apply here? The article said "criminal contempt". I'm assuming there are guidelines dictating which applies in any given circumstance. I was under the -evidently mistaken- impression that 'contempt' was a court thing, and regardless of the variety, it wasn't pardonable. In fact, I thought it was the only open-ended sentence a person could get...you're in jail until you comply with the order, however long that takes. It's not breaking a law, per se, but violating a court order (even if the order is later rescinded/overruled, as you've been telling us).

You're correct that it wouldn't apply here.

There are two main categories of contempt: civil and criminal. Civil contempt is a tool used to compel current or future compliance with an ongoing court order. Criminal contempt is a punishment for violations of a court order, whether past or present.

For example, imagine a court orders a party to disclose all documents relating to X. At trial, it comes out that the party willfully failed to comply, and rather than turning over the documents decided to just shred them. The court can find the party in criminal contempt as a punishment for their past violation of the order. The purpose of the jail time there is to punish the bad behavior the party has already committed, not to compel compliance. However, instead suppose the order is still pending and the party could comply at any time. Now, the court might impose a sanction against the party (like jail time) as a mechanism to get them to currently comply.

The main factor, as noted in the link upthread, is that the contemnor "holds the key to the jailhouse door in their pocket." They can walk out of jail at any time simply by following the order. The jail time is not a punishment for something they did that can't be undone, but instead an effort to get them to comply with a current requirement.

In the instant case, the judge is weighing whether contempt is warranted for the government's failure to comply with his order to stop the planes. It would be a punishment for their past wrongdoing, not an effort to compel any current compliance. So civil contempt would not be available, only criminal contempt.