Duckworth, Klobuchar, Capito, Colleagues Press FAA on Recent System Outages

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (CST) and Ranking Member of the CST Aviation Subcommittee—joined U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), along with U.S. Representatives Pete Stauber (R-MN-08) and Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA-10), in pressing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau on the recent Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system outages and the status of past-due upgrades to the system. In the letter, the lawmakers underscored the importance of modernizing this system to keep pilots and millions of passengers who fly every day safe.

“We write to you to request information on the recent temporary outages of the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system as well as an update on efforts to modernize the system,” said the lawmakers. “Pilots rely on the NOTAM system to remain aware of safety hazards on flight routes. This system is critical to the safety of the nearly 3 million passengers who fly over the U.S. every day.”

The bipartisan NOTAM Improvement Act, which was signed into law in 2023, requires the FAA to establish a task force to strengthen the resiliency and cybersecurity of the NOTAM system, which alerts pilots of safety and location hazards on flight routes. The law now required the FAA to upgrade the NOTAM system and create a backup system by September 2024. While the backup system was put in place in July 2024, the required upgrade of the primary system has not yet been completed.

Full text of the letter is available on Senator Duckworth’s website and below:

Dear Acting Administrator Rocheleau: 

We write to you to request information on the recent temporary outages of the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system as well as an update on efforts to modernize the system. 

Pilots rely on the NOTAM system to remain aware of safety hazards on flight routes. This system is critical to the safety of the nearly 3 million passengers who fly over the U.S. every day. That’s why, following the 2023 outage that led to 1,300 cancelled flights and nearly 10,000 delays, Congress passed our legislation, the NOTAM Improvement Act, to require the FAA to implement a modernized NOTAM system and backup system by September 30, 2024. 

As you know, the primary NOTAM system experienced outages for several hours on February 1 and March 22. While we are pleased that the backup system is in place as of July 2024 and was successfully activated during that outage, we are concerned about the past due implementation of a modernized NOTAM system, as required by law.

To better understand the recent outages and FAA’s progress toward implementing an upgraded NOTAM system, we request the following information: 

1. What caused the recent NOTAM outages? What steps is the FAA taking to mitigate future outages? 

2. How quickly was the backup system activated during the outages? How effective was the backup system, including its performance in comparison to the primary system? 

3. Please provide an update on the FAA’s implementation of the NOTAM Improvement Act, particularly the status of efforts to implement an upgraded NOTAM system. 

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. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. 

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