FAA Bolsters Safeguards for Notam Maintenance, Database
Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said the agency has taken initial precautions to protect the notam database.
ATC tower (Photo: FAA)
The FAA's Air Traffic Organization began noticing issues with the notam system at 3:28 p.m. on January 10, prompting technical experts to troubleshoot throughout the day and into the next morning before restoring it on January 11. (Photo: FAA)

While the FAA continues to examine the notam system outages that led to the temporary ground stop on January 11, the agency has taken initial steps regarding the database and maintenance to safeguard against similar glitches from occurring, according to FAA Acting Administrator Billy Nolen. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed on the morning of January 11 as the agency worked to fix an issue that caused the notam system to fail.

In a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leadership late last week, Nolen noted that a preliminary review found a contractor unintentionally deleted files in the system database and that attempts to restore those files contributed to the outage. He further pointed out that the agency “owns the notam system, but it is contractor maintained.”

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