The software that failed and forced the Federal Aviation Administration to ground thousands of flights on Wednesday is 30 years old and is not scheduled to be updated for another six years, according to a senior government official.
This system was installed in 1993 and runs the Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, system, which sends pilots vital information they need to fly, the official said.
After the FAA was able to get the planes flying again, a government official said a corrupted file that affected both the main and backup NOTAM systems appeared to be to blame.
Investigators are working to determine whether human error or malice was to blame for disabling the system, which eight contract employees had access to. At least one, perhaps two, of those contractors made the edit that corrupted the system, two government sources said Thursday.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told NBC News that he has asked the FAA, “to make sure that there are enough safeguards built into the system so that this level of disruption cannot occur due to decision, action or error. of a single person”.
President Joe Biden ordered an investigation after Buttigieg briefed him on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of travelers were stranded Wednesday after the FAA tweeted at 7:20 a.m. ordering airlines to suspend all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET “to allow the agency to validate the integrity of the data. and Safety” as he worked to restore the NOTAM system.
The FAA lifted the ground stop around 8:50 a.m. and normal air traffic operations began to gradually resume. But by then, airports across the country were already packed with frustrated travelers and a backlog of flights.