wrote:

If I remember correctly, there's a a parking area on the tarmac that
is labeled "Penalty Box". I thought airplanes that violated a
controller's directive were sent there. Was it just a parking area
waiting for a gate to clear?

As far as I know, the PB is at any airport, and is just a euphemism for
wherever you get to sit and wait for many reasons. You could be waiting
for a clearance, a gate, etc... but you can't wait on the taxi way, or
at the gate, if outbound.

Anything with no place to be gets to sit there, out of the way, in the
Penalty Box.