US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acting head Billy Nolen faced a senate probe on Wednesday in a review of last month’s NOTAM system failure.

Questions to answer

The hearing titled “The Federal Aviation Administration’s NOTAM System Failure and its Impacts on a Resilient National Airspace” convened on Wednesday morning to investigate the causes of the NOTAM system outage on January 10th, which brought US air traffic to a standstill for the first time since September 11th, 2001.

Nolen was the only witness called by the panel led by Senator Maria Cantwell and faced tough questioning on the federal agency’s failures and lack of redundancy systems.

In his prepared testimony, Nolen provided a brief insight into the outage, confirming that the cause had stemmed from the accidental deletion of files while attempting to synchronize the live database and a backup one. Nolen added that there was no evidence of a cyber attack or malicious intent and that the outage was unrelated to the NOTAM disruption experienced by NAV Canada on January 11.

In her opening statement, Cantwell emphasized the lack of modern infrastructure within the US aviation industry, drawing reference to Southwest Airlines’ hearing on February 9. In response to Cantwell’s questions, Nolen noted that the FAA was in the process of modernizing its now 30-year-old system and had implemented an hour data synchronization delay and peer oversight as a short-term solution.

“We are working to face the challenges in maintaining our systems while keeping pace with new and emerging technologies and entrants,” Nolen explained in his testimony.

“However, we are committed to improving and securing our systems, finding new ways to be agile in order to face these challenges, and continuing to achieve the highest levels of safety and efficiency.”

Safety concerns

Along with a review of January’s outage, Nolen also faced questioning on the recent near misses at airports across the US. Ranking member Ted Cruz highlighted the “almost mass fatality” incident at Austin (AUS) on February 4, playing a simulation of the close call between Southwest Airlines and FedEx during the hearing.

Nolen dismissed Cruz’s video as inaccurate for failing to demonstrate the poor visibility experienced in Austin, clarifying that the FAA was allowing the National Transportation Safety Board (NSTB) investigation to “play itself out.”

Safety has become a topic of debate across the US aviation industry over the past weeks following several high-profile incidents, highlighting concerns about complacency and a lack of oversight. On Tuesday, Nolen posted a call-to-action memo that will see the FAA and its Commercial Aviation Safety Team undertake a significant review of its structure, processes, systems, and culture.

The FAA will hold a safety summit in March alongside commercial and general aviation bodies to take a deep dive into the actions required to maintain its safety record.

“We all know that complacency has no place in their transportation, whether it’s on the flight deck in the control tower, the ramp, or the dispatch center,” added Nolen.

“We’re confident that we are taking the right steps here, and we look forward to working with the committee and this Congress in developing a long-term FAA reauthorization bill that accelerates the next era of aviation - one that is safe, efficient, sustainable and open to all.”

What are your thoughts on the FAA’s Senate hearing? Let us know in the comments.

Sources: The Washington Post, Reuters, ABC