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The
FAA said the issue occurred while personnel were working "to
correct synchronization between the live primary database and a
backup database." The FAA said it "has so far found no evidence
of a cyber-attack or malicious intent."
FAA acting Administrator Billy Nolen plans to hold a virtual
briefing Friday for lawmakers and staff, who have sought details
of what went wrong with a pilot messaging database that led to
the first nationwide grounding of departing flights since the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Last week, the agency said the computer outage of the Notice to
Air Missions (NOTAM) messaging system was caused by a procedural
error related to a corrupted data file. The NOTAM system
provides pilots, flight crews and other users of U.S. airspace
with critical safety notices.
The FAA said it has made necessary repairs to the system "and
has taken steps to make the pilot message system "more
resilient."
The system outage occurred on Jan. 10, but the FAA groundstop
was not issued until the following morning.
Last week, a group of more than 120 U.S. lawmakers told the FAA
that the computer outage was "completely unacceptable" and
demanded the agency explain how it will avoid future incidents.
Senate Commerce Committee staff have also asked the FAA to
answer questions on the outage, including, "Why were airlines
put in a position where they could have the option of choosing
to operate when the NOTAM system was down?"
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sandra Maler and
Leslie Adler)
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