Pilots Baffled by FAA Decision to Ground Flights After NOTAM System Crash

There is growing confusion over the FAA’s decision to ground all US flights this morning following the failure of a digital safety update system that many pilots say is not crucial and should never have stopped air traffic.

According to the FAA, a problem with its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system meant that all flights had to land and remain on the ground until 9 a.m.

It’s been fixed now, but the outage caused catastrophic delays across the country; More than 8,000 flights have been delayed and 1,000 canceled with more disappointment along the way as airlines and the airport struggle to catch up.

The FAA has yet to explain what caused the outage or why there was no support to keep flights airborne.

Canada’s NOTAM system also went down on Wednesday without explanation, but flights from the country continued without delay.

Now US pilots are also expressing confusion, with some describing the system not working as “no big deal”, raising more questions about why flights were canceled as a result.

They say there are many other ways pilots can receive warnings, and until recently it was done by calling flight safety centers.

Now, they wonder if the chaos stemmed from the fact that there weren’t enough staff in those security centers to answer the phones, or if it was a hasty judgment by incompetent decision makers.

Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a former Air National Guard lieutenant colonel, tweeted that there were “absolutely no security concerns.”

‘It’s not a big deal at all. It is absolutely no security concern. Neither.

“It’s good when it’s active, but there are many other ways to get NOTAMs,” he said, fueling questions about why the flights were grounded.

Ervin Coburn, a private pilot who lives in Washington, told DailyMail.com: ‘In the past, we’d just make one phone call.

“Right now, everything is so digital that once the system crashes, I don’t think they have enough staff to take everyone’s phone calls. They have all the updated information; It’s just a matter of getting it to the pilots.

“These problems are always due to budget cuts or staff cuts.”

In 2021, under Buttigieg’s tenure as Secretary of Transportation, the FAA renamed decades of Notices to airmen to notices to air missions.

Coburn tells DailyMail.com that the FAA also added ‘features’ to the system at the same time.

“About three years ago, the FAA did the name change to notify air missions and added a lot more responsibilities under this role and now here we are,” he said.

Coburn added that while today’s crash may have been an innocent computer glitch, it sends a signal to America’s enemies that it is vulnerable.

“We are in such a digital age now that almost anything could crash a system. You just have to have better skills to go back and forth. I like technology, but I also like being able to go with hard book material.

You would think the government would be prepared for it.

“The United States has the best airspace system in the world and we still do, but this is a wake-up call regarding when technology doesn’t work, whether it’s hacked or cracked, for whatever reason, we should be able to go back to the old school systems.

‘It seems that we are not ready for that, and the world is watching.

‘This is a wake-up call.’

Duane M. Moody, a software engineer in Florida who previously served as an aircraft rescue firefighter for the Montana city of Billings, told DailyMail.com that enough controls are in place for flights to continue without NOTAMs.

“Air traffic control has to contact the pilots to let them know if there is a problem. If you had a hazard like a broken light on a runway, you would immediately tell ATC and they would directly inform the pilot about the hazard, even before it was recorded as a NOTAM.

“Also, NOTAMs are just a notice: a pilot still has the discretion to take it into account or not.

“I don’t know what caused the outage, but it shouldn’t have affected travel the way it has.

“Something is seriously broken here,” he said.

Moody added: ‘You have to ask yourself if it is the bureaucracy or perhaps, if there was a NOTAM related system that went down that is more critical.

I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but it may be something we don’t know.

‘The last time air traffic was stopped was on 9/11, so for it to be done today because of NOTAMs? It’s ridiculous.

“I would classify the incompetence about a cyber attack in the probability of what went wrong here,” he said.

In a video message this afternoon, Secretary Buttigieg said the flights were suspended out of “an abundance of caution.”

“Safety is always our first priority, ensuring the safety of the flight was the reason for the ground stop this morning,” he said.

It’s unclear what exactly led to the system crash in the first place.