What is the NOTAM system? Thousands of flights remain grounded due to a 'computer malfunction'
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Flights were grounded nationwide on Wednesday, January 11, due to a computer malfunction at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
According to FlightAware, over 2,500 flights were delayed at the time of writing. The East Coast saw the majority of delays, but they were starting to move west, per Los Angeles Times. American Airlines tweeted that the FAA was experiencing a nationwide system outage. "We're closely monitoring the situation and working with the FAA to minimize customer disruptions," the airline tweeted. According to ABC news, American Airlines said that an outage with its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which provides critical flight safety operation information, was behind the unfortunate situation.
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The FAA tweeted that they were working to restore the NOTAM system, acknowledging that operations across the National Airspace System had been affected. "We will provide frequent updates as we make progress," the FAA wrote in one of its tweets in a thread.
The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Operations across the National Airspace System are affected.
We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.
In a previous tweet in the same thread, the FAA informed that some functions were back online, and in it's latest update the FAA informed that departures were set to resume at 9 am ET.
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.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
As officials continue to work towards bringing the system back online, here's a look at what NOTAM is and why did the outage lead to thousands of flights being grounded across the country.
What is NOTAM and why are flights being grounded?
A NOTAM or Notice to Air Missions is information sent to flight operators and personnel about conditions that are essential but cannot be predicted enough in advance to be publicized by other means and states the abnormal status of a component of the National Airspace System, as per the FAA. This information includes components that may affect a flight but cannot be predicted in advance like weather conditioins, presence of disrupters like a flock of birds or any form of unusual events such as parachute jumps and rocket launches, Simple Flying reported.
Despite several means of communication available, the NOTAM system remains crucial for flights to function across the world. In it's official website, the FAA explained the importance and necessity of NOTAM for safe and smooth air traffic in three points:
1. NOTAMs indicate the real-time and abnormal status of the NAS impacting every user.
2. NOTAMs concern the establishment, condition, or change of any facility, service, procedure or hazard in the NAS.
3. NOTAMs have a unique language using special contractions to make communication more efficient.
As per ABC news, the FAA reported of a computer malfunction leading to an outage that was preventing any updates in its NOTAM system. While the cause of the system failure remains unknown as speculations rise, a lack of a NOTAM means that all flights, irrespective of whether they are commercial or military, cannot take off. The major reason for this is that NOTAM is the method by which the FAA apprises pilots and flight operators of real-time hazards and restrictions that is pivotal for the safety of aircraft from the beginning to the end of their journey.
