The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told lawmakers it has made a series of changes to prevent a repeat of a computer system outage that on Jan. 11, 2023, disrupted more than 11,000 U.S. flights.
In a letter dated January 27 and seen by Reuters on January 30, Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen explained that the agency has made a change in the system to prevent a corrupt file from damaging a backup database.
Last week the FAA told lawmakers it had revoked access to a pilot messaging database by contractor personnel who unintentionally deleted files in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) database.
Per Nolen's letter, attempts to restore those deleted files contributed to the outage. He added that since then the FAA has adopted a one-hour delay in synchronizing databases that should prevent data errors from immediately reaching the backup database.
The FAA also confirmed it "now requires at least two individuals to be present during the maintenance of the NOTAM system, including one federal manager."
This action was the first nationwide ground stop of departing flights since the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States.
The NOTAM system provides critical safety notices to pilots, flight crews and other users of U.S. airspace. The FAA letter further explained that the current NOTAM System consists of two interdependent systems, the 30-year-old U.S. NOTAM System and the newer Federal NOTAM System, which it called the foundation for the ongoing modernization effort.
The primary database and backup database are located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, while two additional backup databases are in Atlantic City, New Jersey
The FAA began modernizing the NOTAM system in 2019 "and is scheduled to discontinue the legacy U.S. NOTAM System by mid-2025. Phase two of the NOTAM system modernization is planned to be completed in 2030," the letter said.
The FAA said it has conducted three assessments of the system since 2020 including the most recent in October.
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