FAA says data file ‘damage’ caused outage
The computer failure that prompted a halt of all U.S. flight departures was caused when a data file was damaged as a result of a failure to follow government procedures, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.
Unspecified “personnel” were responsible for corrupting the file, which led to the outage of an FAA computer system that sends safety notices to pilots, the agency said in a statement. That triggered the FAA to order a halt to all U.S. departing flights for 90 minutes on Wednesday.
Preliminary indications are that two people working for a contractor introduced errors into the core data used on the system known as Notice to Air Missions, or Notam, according to a person familiar with the FAA review who asked not to be identified speaking about the sensitive, ongoing issue.
Notams are advisories to pilots on safety-critical conditions, including everything from warnings about bird activity to runway construction.
The FAA has imposed procedures to ensure data aren’t damaged by technicians, said the person. The file or files were altered in spite of rules that prohibit those kinds of changes on a live system.
Agency officials are attempting to determine whether the two people made the changes accidentally or intentionally, and if there was any malicious intent, the person said.
When the system began having problems Tuesday night, technicians switched to a backup. But because the backup was attempting to access the same damaged data, it also didn’t work, the person said.
A complete shutdown was required to restore the system.