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CNN
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A critical Federal Aviation Administration computer system that experienced an outage on Wednesday All US flights were briefly suspended Provides airlines with a digital bulletin board of important safety updates.
The system is known as Notice to Air Mission or NOTAM. It sends alerts to pilots to inform them of conditions that could affect the safety of their flight. It’s separate from the air traffic control system that keeps planes a safe distance from each other, but it’s another important tool for air safety.
NOTAM messages may include information about the lights going out on a particular runway, or the non-functioning of required safety lights on a tower near the airport, or an air show in nearby airspace.
“It’s like telling a trucker that a road ahead is closed. It’s critical information,” said Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant at Boyd Group International.
Boyd and others said Wednesday’s problems are a sign that computer systems need to be upgraded
“Today’s FAA catastrophic system failure is a clear sign that America’s transportation network desperately needs a significant upgrade,” said Geoff Freeman, CEO of the US Travel Association, a trade group for the travel and tourism industry. “Americans deserve an end-to-end travel experience that is seamless and safe. And our nation’s economy depends on a best-in-class air travel system.”
Although many flights take place without the need to see one of these notices, it is important that NOTAM messages reach pilots who are trained to check them.
The FAA also manages the nation’s air traffic control system, with air traffic controllers using radar to track all planes in their airspace and radio communication with their cockpits to guide them safely. Computer systems that form the backbone of the ATC system are also known to go down. But when it does happen, it usually affects only one region of the country, not the entire country’s skies.
The NOTAM is a national system, so its failure on Wednesday meant that flights across the country were instructed not to take off for several hours before they were cleared to fly again shortly before 9 a.m. ET.
If no new problems arise, flights should return to normal soon, although it may take time to get all delayed flights in the air. Just before noon ET Wednesday, tracking service FlightAware showed nearly 7,000 delayed flights, to and from the United States, including about 1,100 completely canceled flights.
Aviation analytics firm Circum reported that 23,000 domestic and international flights to or from the United States were scheduled for Wednesday.
“By 6 p.m. today we won’t even know it happened, I think,” Boyd said.
But if the problem lingers, flight crews who stand by for delayed flights will run out of time on service days. In that case, the delayed flight may be canceled if another new crew cannot be found.
NOTAMS has been around for decades. But until December 2021, it was known as “Notice to Airmen”, although the abbreviation remained the same.
This was changed to remove the gendered word and because the notices were then also sent to drone operators and not just aircraft pilots.
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