Absence of Accountability

The FAA has provided Congress details pertaining to the 11 January 2023 NOTAM database failure that grounded an estimated ten-thousand U.S. flights and delayed scores more. The agency, after the inimitable fashion of federal bureaucracies, has blamed the debacle on a contractor.

According to the FAA, subject contractor, while carrying out work on the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system—a longstanding resource by which flight-critical information and bulletins are disseminated to pilots and air-crews—“unintentionally deleted files." The faux pas, in addition to crippling the U.S. National Airspace System, underscored the frailty endemic to U.S. federal computer systems and databases.

To the subject of the NOTAM system failure and consequent grounding, the FAA stated: "The agency is acting quickly to adopt any other lessons learned in our efforts to ensure the continuing robustness of the nation’s air traffic control system."

On Wednesday, 11 January 2023, an Air Traffic Control System Command Center advisory was posted for purpose of confirming the NOTAM system had failed.

The advisory stated: "The United States NOTAM System failed at 20:28Z. Since then no new NOTAMs or amendments have been processed. Technicians are currently working to restore the system and there is no estimate for restoration of service at this time. There is currently a hotline in effect which has National [Airspace System] Aeronautical Information Management Enterprise System (NAIMES)/FAA facilities/stakeholders in attendance. This hotline information is contained within Advisory 004. This Advisory will be updated as necessary.”

The FAA defines NOTAM as: "A notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means. It [NOTAM] states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System (NAS)—not the normal status."

Ergo, NOTAMs are essential to the safety of both U.S. domestic flights and international flights attempting to land at U.S. airports.

In the wake of the NOTAM system failure, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre—to the enduring relief of on-duty flight-crews the innumerable air-travelers entrusted thereto—tweeted that Joe Biden had been made aware of the situation. Mr. Jean-Pierre further stated "there is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes."

FMI: www.faa.gov