• The US aviation sector was struggling to return to normal after a nationwide ground stop imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over a computer issue that forced a halt to all US departing flights.

• The FAA announced that it suffered an outage of its Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM), which alerts pilots and other personnel about airborne issues.

• The glitch prevented airports from filing updated safety notices that warn pilots of potential hazards such as runway closures, poor weather and construction, bringing flights to a temporary halt.

• The FAA is continuing a thorough review to determine the root cause of the NOTAM system outage. The preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file.

• FAA officials added that there was no evidence of a cyberattack.

What is NOTAM?

• NOTAM was created in 1947 and issued via telecommunications. 

• NOTAM was modeled after ‘Notice to Mariners’, which advised ship captains of hazards in navigating the high seas.

• Until December 2021 the system was known as ‘Notice to Airmen’. 

• It was changed to ‘Notice to Air Mission’ to be inclusive of all aviators and missions.

• It is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations.

• It contains information concerning the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard.

• The information can include things like temporary flight restrictions, changes to air traffic control procedures, runway closures, and other issues that could impact flights in a specific area.

• Before a flight, pilots are required to consult NOTAM, which lists potential adverse impacts.

• NOTAM has a unique language characterised by the use of specialised contractions (short forms).

• Contractions are imperative to the NOTAM structure because they make communication more efficient and allow computer systems to parse important words.

• The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is the leading authority for standardising contractions in the international aeronautical community.

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