Late within the night of Jan. 10, 2023, an vital digital system often known as NOTAM run by the Federal Aviation Administration went offline. The FAA was capable of proceed getting essential info to pilots in a single day utilizing a phone-based backup, however the stopgap couldn’t sustain with the morning rush of flights, and on Jan. 11, 2022, the FAA grounded all industrial flights within the U.S. In complete, nearly 7,000 flights had been canceled. Brian Strzempkowksi is the interim director of the Heart for Aviation Research at The Ohio State College and a industrial pilot, flight teacher and dispatcher. He explains what the NOTAM system is and why planes can’t fly if the system goes down.
What’s NOTAM?
Aviation is stuffed with acronyms, and Discover to Air Missions, or NOTAM, is one acronym that pilots be taught early on of their coaching. A NOTAM is kind of merely a message that’s disseminated to flight crews of each plane within the US.
The NOTAM system is a pc community run by the Federal Aviation Administration that gives real-time updates to crews about conditions referring to climate, infrastructure, floor circumstances or the rest which will affect the safety of flight. Skilled professionals—like air site visitors controllers, airport managers, airport operations personnel, and FAA personnel answerable for nationwide airspace infrastructure—can entry the system and enter any info they should share broadly.
Pilots, air site visitors controllers, and anybody else who must learn about flying circumstances can entry the NOTAM system and make acceptable adjustments to deliberate flights. It’s much like checking the site visitors in your telephone or on the native information earlier than you head to work within the morning. A site visitors report will inform you of potential hazards or backups on the roadways which will lead you’re taking a special path to work.
What’s within the NOTAM system and the way is it used?
NOTAMs are issued for a variety of causes. A number of the notices are good to know however don’t have an effect on a flight—equivalent to personnel mowing grass alongside a runway or a crane engaged on a constructing subsequent to the airport. Others are extra crucial, equivalent to a runway being closed due to snow, ice or injury, forcing a aircraft to take off or land on a special runway. Modifications in entry to airspace are additionally logged with a NOTAM. For instance, airspace is at all times closed above the president and when she or he travels; a NOTAM will alert pilots to adjustments in airspace closures.
Pilots review these NOTAMs throughout their preflight briefings. Typically that is accomplished digitally utilizing a pc, however pilots and air site visitors controllers can even entry the system by calling flight service briefers, who can share live weather and NOTAM information. Airline pilots additionally depend on their dispatchers to relay any related NOTAMs not solely earlier than but additionally in the course of the flight.
The NOTAMs themselves use loads of abbreviations and are sometimes cryptic to nonaviation of us, however a small quantity of textual content can carry a lot of information. Tons of of various acronyms can convey a spread of data, from taxiway closures to sure sorts of airport lighting being out of service to a discover that some pavement markings could also be obscured.
However not all NOTAMs are easy. I keep in mind as soon as seeing a discover from an airport alerting pilots {that a} hearth division was conducting a managed burn of a home close by.
Why can’t you fly if the NOTAM system is down?
The Federal Aviation Authority requires flight crews to review NOTAMs before every flight for security causes. With out entry to this info, a aircraft can’t legally depart, as a result of there could also be an unknown hazard forward.
For instance, a pilot departing Seattle to fly to Miami would wish to know that the Miami airport is open, that the runways are clear and that each one the navigational sources—like GPS alerts and ground-based navigation antennas—{that a} pilot might use whereas within the air are working. Theoretically, they may name the Miami airport and ask, after which name the one that oversees each navigational assist on their route, however that might take loads of time. A way more environment friendly strategy to collect this info earlier than and through a flight is to make use of the NOTAM system.
On the finish of the day, the NOTAM system is about security. When the system is down, pilots can’t fly as safely. It’s for good purpose that planes don’t go anyplace until the NOTAM system is up and operating.
Brian Strzempkowski is Interim Director, Heart for Aviation Research, The Ohio State University
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