The early morning is chaotic in the United States, where airports are completely paralyzed due to a computer failure.
Early this Wednesday morning in the United States, tens of thousands of passengers had the unpleasant surprise of seeing their flight delayed, the fault of the essential NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system simply broke down. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), the local aviation authority, had to work on crisis communication, promising a return to normal in a few hours.
An essential system that broke down overnight…
The NOTAM system is used to receive and process notices to air missions. These messages relay advisories issued by air traffic control agencies and are used to inform pilots and airports of any potential obstructions that may be in a flight route, such as a closed runway, equipment failure, or other danger. The pilot then has the task of consulting, before the flight, all the messages of this type that he may potentially receive.
The NOTAM system is, as you will have understood, fundamental for the smooth circulation of aircraft. Without a fully functioning system, aviation safety is no longer assured, and the FAA must then order aircraft to stay on the ground…and those in the air not to land.
Since 5:30 a.m. local time, at least 400 flights have been delayed, both domestic and to the United States. Nearly an hour after first communicating on the subject and the reason for the outage, the FAA spoke again, saying at 7:19 a.m. local time (1:19 p.m. Paris time) to be “ still working to fully restore the NOTAM system following an outage “.
… which has been causing a monster mess for several hours (and the next) in airports in the United States
The FAA specifies that it has ordered all airlines to suspend all departures until 9 a.m. local time (i.e. 3 p.m. Paris time) “ to enable the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information “.
Concerning planes stuck in the air and being unable to land, the FAA has just indicated, at 8:15 a.m. local time (and 2:15 p.m. Paris time), that it has made progress in restoring its system of notice to air missions, after the breakdown that occurred last night. ” All flights currently in the sky can land safely. Pilots check the NOTAM system before flying. »
At the complete resumption of traffic, therefore hoped for the next tens of minutes, American airports should fall into a mess rarely known, the order of flights having been completely turned upside down.
10