A U.S. Federal Aviation Administration system that delivers safety messages to pilots experienced an outage for several hours before operations resumed, as reported by the agency and airlines. The "Notice to Airmen" (NOTAM) system was down for over three hours due to a hardware issue; it had also suffered a failure in early February.
The FAA described the main NOTAM system as having undergone a temporary outage that required a reset. The agency is investigating the root cause and closely monitoring the situation. The NOTAM system is crucial for pilots, flight crews, and other users of U.S. airspace, providing essential safety notices that may include information about taxiway light outages, nearby parachute activity, or runway closures for construction.
"All active NOTAMs were available until the time of the outage," the FAA noted.
U.S. Transportation Secretary announced plans for a significant overhaul of the aging U.S. air traffic control system. A ground stop in January 2023 disrupted over 11,000 flights, marking the first nationwide U.S. ground stop since 2001. The FAA aims to modernize the system by mid-2025.
Nick Daniels, President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, stated that the NOTAM system has caused substantial disruptions. He indicated that the FAA would require a minimum of $154 million for further research on a replacement system, with an estimated $354 million needed to actually replace the dysfunctional NOTAM system. The Government Accountability Office has emphasized the urgency for the FAA to address these systems, noting that one-third of them are unsustainable.