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FAA NOTAM System Outage

fly.faa.gov

51–60 of 230 posts

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#51
post #37

ATC can tell pilots what they need to know, right?

The NOTAMs for a commercial flight from JFK to LAX, for example, would be several pages long. Warnings about construction work at either airport, closed taxiways, cranes in the vicinity of the airport, enroute navigational aids which are unusable, etc. ATC can't relay that for every departing flight. Additionally, the NOTAM system is where they'd retrieve these from, so if that's down they have nothing to relay.

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#52
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ATC will be fine to get everyone on the ground safely. There are procedures for everything including ATC itself being down.

I never doubted that. The question is if they could've worked without a ground stop by having ATC give them all info.

No. ATC gets busy enough as is, each plane needs NOTAMs covering their entire route, and if the system is down ATC isn’t getting them either anyways.

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#54
post #47

Why do all aviation IT systems feel like they are so fragile? It feels like not a single month can pass these days without some "Airline X has major outage and ruins tons of people's days!" story on the news. What is the tech behind these frail systems?

More modern systems are also down once in a while. With aviation it's just more visible because one system can affect a lot of people.

I'm not sure when ATC systems (which I would count NOTAM to be one of) have last failed, I always had the feeling they're very stable. It's usually airlines that struggle with their applications.

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#55
Edit 2 - * Ground stop Lifted * Update from FAA:

>Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted.

>We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem

https://mobile.twitter.com/FAANews/status/161317140080139468...

---

Edit - Update from FAA:

> Update 4: The FAA is making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system following an overnight outage. Departures are resuming at @EWRairport and @ATLairport due to air traffic congestion in those areas. We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 a.m. ET.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FAANews/status/161316273572174643...

---

Flightradar24 are reporting:

> Flights to US airports have been groundstopped by the FAA until at least 09:30 ET (1430 UTC). This means any flight not in the air already will not be allowed to depart. Image: flights over US now compared to same time last week. About 700 fewer flights airborne now.

> Flights are being held as the FAA works to bring the NOTAM (NOtice To Air Missions) system back online.

https://mobile.twitter.com/flightradar24/status/161315347921...

Latest FAA update:

> Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.

> The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FAANews/status/161314857927045939...

Statement from the white house:

> The President has been briefed by the Secretary of Transportation this morning on the FAA system outage. There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes. The FAA will provide regular updates.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PressSec/status/16131535612899328...

I believe this means that nothing can take off, but aircraft already in the air can continue to their planned destinations.

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#57
post #2

As of 06:24 US Eastern the appears to no longer be true. There is a NOTAM outage but no full ground stop is mentioned, just a few specific due to weather. Edit: obviously a developing situation, see responses to this comment for current advisories.

- "All US domestic flights have been grounded for several hours because of a glitch with the flight control system."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64236047

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#58

Edit 2 - * Ground stop Lifted * Update from FAA: >Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted. >We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem https://mobile.twitter.com/FAANews/status/161317140080139468... --- Edit - Update from FA…

Looks like they published some kind of a "master NOTAM" now with all important information to restart as soon as possible.

https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_otherdis.jsp?advn=31&adv_dat...

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#59
post #47

Why do all aviation IT systems feel like they are so fragile? It feels like not a single month can pass these days without some "Airline X has major outage and ruins tons of people's days!" story on the news. What is the tech behind these frail systems?

I think it's just a question of media visibility. Aviation outage = queues in airports = easy article to write

Re: FAA NOTAM System Outage

#60
post #47

Why do all aviation IT systems feel like they are so fragile? It feels like not a single month can pass these days without some "Airline X has major outage and ruins tons of people's days!" story on the news. What is the tech behind these frail systems?

All hyper optimized systems become fragile until they collapse.

The NOTAM system is ridiculous, no surprise it collapsed ... you can lose your ticket for flying thru a MOA that went active AFTER you took off.

What could possibly go wrong with a "push" notification system for every tiny little detail of aerospace scheduling? No force is as destructive as the good idea fairy.

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