By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of six U.S. lawmakers has questioned the Federal Aviation Administration about recent outages of the “Notice to Airmen” system that provides pilots, flight crews and others with critical safety notices about U.S. airspace.
The system failed in February and March.
The lawmakers, led by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Shelley Moore Capito, noted in a letter seen by Reuters that Congress passed legislation requiring the FAA to implement a modernized NOTAM system and backup system by September 2024 — a deadline the agency missed.
“Travelers deserve flights that are safe and on time. We urge you to ensure that a modernized NOTAM system is implemented in a timely manner,” they wrote in the letter also signed by Republican Senator Jerry Moran, who chairs an aviation subcommittee, and Tammy Duckworth, the top Democrat on the panel.
The FAA did not immediately comment.
The system most recently failed on March 22 for more than three hours due to a hardware issue. On Feb 1, the system also suffered a failure.
“What caused the recent NOTAM outages? What steps is the FAA taking to mitigate future outages?,” the lawmakers wrote.
Notices from the system could include items such as taxiway lights being out at an airport, nearby parachute activity or a specific runway being closed for construction.
A NOTAM outage in January 2023 disrupted more than 11,000 flights in the first nationwide U.S. ground stop since 2001. The FAA said in 2023 it planned to discontinue an older NOTAM system by mid-2025.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels told Congress last month the NOTAM system has led to significant disruptions and will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replace.
“At minimum, the FAA will need $154 million just to conduct further research on a replacement NOTAM system, but will need $354 million to replace the broken NOTAM system,” Daniels said.
Last month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he planned to ask Congress for tens of billions of dollars for a multi-year effort to revamp FAA air traffic control infrastructure and boost hiring for the understaffed agency.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)
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