(Updates with details, background, member comments, etc.)
David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives next week will pass a bipartisan bill that would create a task force for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to replace the pilot message database that failed last week and crippled 11,000 flights. I plan to improve.
A Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) database outage resulted in a nationwide halt to U.S. passenger traffic on January 11 for the first time since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The NOTAM system provides important safety notices to pilots, flight crews, and other users in US airspace.
The bill requires improvements to be considered by the FAA task force, including updates “to ensure the stability, resilience and cybersecurity of NOTAM computer systems,” says House Pete Stauber, a Republican backer of the bill. MP said.
In a statement, Stauber said the failure demonstrated “an urgent need for updates and improvements to keep air traffic running safely in our skies.”
On Thursday, the FAA’s first investigation found that contractors were “unintentionally deleting files” that disrupted the NOTAM system, and that officers were “unintentionally deleting files between live primary and backup databases.” He added that there was a problem while working on fixing the synchronization of The FAA said it “has found no evidence of a cyberattack or malicious intent.”
Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen held a virtual briefing for congressional staff on Friday but did not identify the contractors involved in the failure. The FAA will hold a briefing for Congressmen next week.
There are two separate databases containing the 30-year-old system known as the “US NOTAM System” based in Oklahoma City that will be phased out in favor of the new “Federal NOTAM System” based in Atlantic City. said the source.
Last week there was a corruption in the US NOTAM system that compromised the federal NOTAM database. Since then, the FAA has put in place safeguards, including staggered update processes, to isolate problems before they affect other databases. The FAA wants him to be present when routine maintenance takes place, the sources added.
The FAA said on Thursday it had taken steps to make its pilot message system “more resilient.” Sources say the FAA will eventually migrate his NOTAM messaging system to a virtual platform in the cloud.
A group of more than 120 US lawmakers told the FAA last week
Computer outages are ‘totally unacceptable’
and demanded that officials explain how to avoid future incidents. (Reporting by David Shepherdson; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
