A critical aviation warning system that went down Saturday has been restored to working order, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday.
“It went down last night. A backup system was activated. As of right now, the lead system is online and working,” Duffy told CNN.
When the primary NOTAM system went down Saturday night, Duffy posted on X “there may be some residual delays” to flights Sunday morning.
“Pilots use this system to access their flight information and details prior to taking off,” explained Duffy. “If the NOTAM system malfunctions, it can lead to flight disruptions, although on this occasion, the impact was minimal.”
As of almost noon Eastern Time on Sunday, there were a total of 1,313 flight delays and 80 flight cancellations in, to, or from the United States, as reported by the flight tracking service FlightAware.
NOTAM, an acronym for Notice to Air Missions, serves as a digital platform that transmits warnings to pilots regarding any circumstances that might impact the safety of their flights.
That could include information about lights being out on a runway, a tower near an airport not having the required safety lights working – or an air show taking place in the air space nearby.
It is separate from the air traffic control system that keeps planes a safe distance from each other, but it’s another critical tool for air safety.
The system has gone down before; an outage in January 2023 briefly halted all US flights.
“There’s a process in place right now to get this system fixed. We want to expedite that and get this new system in place,” Duffy said. “This is an old system that needs to be upgraded.”
