FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt announced the formation of an
independent review panel Tuesday that will examine the November 19,
2009 outage of the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI). The
group of experts will survey the FTI's architecture and recommend
any immediate or future changes to improve its reliability even
further. They will also review the management of the system to
ensure the most stringent protocols and safeguards are in
place.
"Last month's outage was unacceptable and we need to understand
what happened and make certain it doesn't happen again," said FAA
Administrator Randy Babbitt. "This panel is going to take a hard
look at every part of the FTI operation. We have an extremely
reliable system but we need to have the confidence that problems
can be solved quickly and efficiently so our air traffic
controllers and aircraft operators have the tools they need and
travelers aren't inconvenienced."
The panel will deliver two reports to Administrator Babbitt early
next year. The first will focus on the November outage and contain
suggestions for any immediate changes that need to be made to the
FTI system, management procedures, or oversight. The second will
examine FTI's present and future architecture as it relates to
emerging technology and future FAA systems.
The FTI system operates 24 hours a day seven days a week and
provides communication support for the National Airspace System.
Last month's four hour outage did not affect critical safety
systems or public safety. Air traffic controllers' radar remained
in operation and controllers were able to communicate with
aircraft. The National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN)
which processes flight planning data was affected because it relied
on the FTI services. During the outage, air traffic controllers
managed flight plan data manually and safely according to FAA
contingency plans.
Randy Babbitt
Panel members include: Amr ElSawy, President and CEO of Noblis,
a nonprofit science, technology and strategy organization; Federal
Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra; Department of
Transportation Chief Information Officer (CIO) Nitin Pradhan; FAA
CIO Dave Bowen; and the FAA's Air Traffic Control Organization CIO
Steve Cooper.
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