The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has claimed that this week's failure of its Notice To Air Missions (NOTAM) system was caused by personnel failing to follow the proper operating procedures. The system outage, the first in NOTAM's history, led to widespread delays and cancelations across the US.
Procedure error causes NOTAM failure
The FAA said that "personnel who failed to follow procedures" were responsible for the NOTAM system outage earlier this week. It isn't precisely clear what procedural failures caused the system to go offline, but the FAA's preliminary investigation "has traced the outage to a damaged database file." Importantly, authorities appear to have ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack.
The system went offline on the evening of January 10th - initially, the FAA coped using a phone-based backup system, but this was unfeasible for the rush of flights on the morning of January 11th, leaving the agency with no choice but to ground all commercial flights in the US - the first nationwide cessation of air traffic in over 20 years.
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The investigation continues
A Reuters report claims that "the same file corrupted both the main system and its backup," adding that the FAA continues to investigate the problem and prevent it from happening again. The system was quickly restored after the outage, but the knock-on effect has been felt across the industry, with over 13,000 flights delayed or canceled due to the malfunction.
The outage could prove a key talking point as the FAA enters its federal funding reauthorization process. The FAA and other industry leaders have previously complained about the agency's underfunding preventing any meaningful technological upgrades. As reported by NPR, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said on Friday,
"I think it's very clear that there has to be a call to action amongst our political leaders, Congress and the White House, to fund and properly provide the FAA the resources they need to do the job. We need to take them off the year-by-year funding that it seems like they go through that's quite often political negotiations, and realize the importance of having a strong aviation infrastructure."
NOTAM is an essential safety feature that allows pilots to be aware of any hazards on their route, be it a flock of birds, a closed runway or updated weather information. All pilots must review NOTAMs before departing and will also receive new updates in flight, with messages often numbering in the thousands.
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Years away from an upgrade
While the NOTAM network has undergone several revamps over the decades, the operating system running NOTAM is over 30 years old. As reported by CNN, a system upgrade is still around six years away, with many calling for this timeline to be pushed forward urgently.
A source told CNN,
"The core operating system for the database has been around since the 1990s. Regardless of the improvements made to the system in recent years, it still has the heart of an 89-year-old man."
This week's NOTAM outage follows a serious system error at Southwest Airlines causing over 16,500 flight cancelations over a 10-day period, demonstrating a serious need for system upgrades across the aviation industry.
Do you think the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) deserves a bigger budget? Were your travel plans impacted by the NOTAM outage this week? Let us know in the comments.