Moses FrancisImage: DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images
FAA computer glitch: On Tuesday 11th January 2023, an important Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system witnessed an overnight system glitch, grounding flights across the US. According to the information/notice posted by the FAA on Wednesday morning that the United States Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) system failed as a result of technical glitches, but before 9 AM ET, they affirm that Normal air traffic operations are restarting gradually.
After the announcement of the air traffic operations gradually, The FAA has begun to investigate what actually caused the Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) to glitch. Some tech gurus are suggesting that the technical glitches were brought about due to some damaged database file. At this moment we can’t really say if it’s another form of a ransomware attack as there is no evidence to prove that it is actually a cyberattack.
Since yesterday evening the FAA team are working tirelessly to find and locate what causes the glitches and also to take the necessary precaution to avoid such glitches from occurring in the future.
All the Flights were grounded as part of safety measures immediately the corrupt file was located in the Notice To Air Mission (NOTAM) in both the backup and main system. However, flights that are already in the air we’re allowed to make their landings.
The Agency stated that the glitch was to NOTAM which is saddled with the responsibility of providing safety information to on-air flight crew. The glitches were resolved at 5:50 Am PT/8:50 AM ET.
Pete Buttigieg the secretary of the corporation affirmed that they’ll continue to evaluate the cause of the initial problem, he also said that he has directed the “after-action process to evaluate the cause.
President Joe Biden also commented on the issue. In his word, he affirmed that the department of transportation are yet to ascertain what actually caused the major computer glitches that have grounded flights in the U.S. He gave this response after reporters pressed him on the possibility that NOTAM could have been under cyberattack.
President Biden continued ” They probably are yet to find out the cause of it, they are hopeful that within some hours they will be able to trace what the problem is.
As of 5:15 AM PT/8:15 AM ET the NOTAM announced that departure has commenced at Newark and Atlanta airports respectively while departure is likely to begin at other airports at 6 AM PT/9 AM ET.
This type of system glitches it failure Naturally drew the attention of news media, especially that of the morning shows and cable news Network. Those networks quickly dispatched correspondence to the nearest airport in order to ascertain the level of the system failure.
According to the FA, all flights that are already in the sky are permitted to land. Pilots usually check the NOTAM system before they take off, this is to know if it is safe or not to fly.
The function of NOTAM is to communicate to pilots if there is a closed runway, equipment outages, and other Notable potential hazards along a flight route or if there is a location that will affect the flight.
According to NBC News, All departing flights were postponed or grounded. Leaving thousands of customers frustrated across the U.S. without any clear time frame for when departure will resume.
FAA statement saying grounded flights were expected to resume from all airports by 9AM ET. Update January 12th 9:30 am Et.
As of 5:15 AM PT/8:15 AM ET the NOTAM announced that departure has commenced at Newark and Atlanta airport respectively while departure is likely to begin at other airports at 6 AM PT/9 AM ET.
A further statement from the FAA shows that they are already working to restore its NOTAM system.
We are already doing the final validation check-up and reloading the NOTAM system right now. Because of this system, damage operations across the country are affected. We will also provide updates to the relevant authorities as we progress,” the information released at 3.30am PT states.
The follow up message which was released on Twitter confirmed that while some NOTAM functions have started to come online, National Airspace system operations are still limited.
Since there is no stipulated time for the full restoration of the Notice to Air Mission system, air travel will remain unpredictable today.
According to data published by flight tracker (FlightAware.com) shows that not less than 1,200 Flights have been postponed.
According to a tweet from American Air; the system failure has affected all Flights including all carriers. United Airlines has said that they have temporarily deleted all domestic flights until the issue is resolved.
This crisis follows on from the travel problems that were recently experienced due to heavy storms on the East Coast. This chaos also caused the cancellation of up to thousands flights due to the weather.
FAA computers down.
FAA is an acronym for the Federal Aviation Administration. The Organization is the U.S federal government wing that controls and regulates the use of aircraft, aircraft safety and noise and also develops standards for pilots and airports.
Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) is a very important system that informs both Pilots and other flight personnel about the situation of airports across the nation, router report. The NOTAM system gives out information on runway closure, bird hazards and other potential obstacles.
On 11th January 2023, the FAA computer went down because of issues caused by a bad file. However the FAA is yet to ascertain if the attack is that of ransomware or just the normal breakdown of files. Thousands of domestic flights within the U.S were delayed due the NOTAM system outage.
The Federal aviation Administration computer outage has affected thousands of flights across the country. This computer outage occurred due to a mistake made during the routine schedule system maintenance; this was reviewed by a senior official during an internal briefing.
The senior official reviewed that an engineer replaced one vital file with another, he did not realize the mistakes on time. Until the system started having problems and ultimately the system failed.
FAA staff tried to find where the problem was coming but to no avail. The engineer who made the mistake didn’t realize what had happened.
FAA computer testing centers.
Computer testing is a critical part of the FAA’s safety mission. Computer testing centers have been set-up across the country. From time to time computer systems are being tested to ensure that they have not been attacked by a ransomware file or attack.
This center also trains air officials and offers them useful certificates at the end of the course.
Below is the list of computer testing centers in the United States.
NATIONAL AIR COLLEGE
3760 GLENN CURTIS ROAD
SAN DIEGO CA 92123
(858) 279-4595
SAN DIEGO FLIGHT TRAINING INTL
8745 AERO DRIVE STE 103
SAN DIEGO CA 92123
(858) 569-1822
EL CAJON
CALIFORNIA FLIGHT ACADEMY
2045 NORTH MARSHALL
EL CAJON CA 92020
(619) 448-2212
AMERICAN AVIATION ACADEMY
2035 NORTH MARSHALL AVENUE
EL CAJON CA 92020
(619) 448-9149
GOLDEN STATE FLYING CLUB
1640 NORTH JOHNSON AVENUE
EL CAJON CA 92020
(619) 449-0611
SAA FLIGHT TRAINING
1835 NORTH MARSHALL
EL CAJON CA 92020
(619) 631-0323
CIVIC HELICOPTERS, INC
2192 H PALOMAR AIRPORT ROAD
CARLSBAD CA 92008
(760) 438-8424
PACIFIC WEST AVIATION
2186 PALOMAR AIRPORT ROAD
CARLSBAD CA 92011
(760) 804-9263
PINNACLE AVIATION ACADEMY
2016 PALOMAR AIRPORT ROAD STE D
CARLSBAD CA 92008
(760) 929-1009
Fake computer glitch.
Before we look at what fake computer glitch is, I would like to introduce you to the concept itself.
Computer glitches are more often a temporary disruption of a computer system. The disruption can be caused by several factors. Most of the prominent causes are usually errors within the operating system, brokerage of software or problems created by computer bugs or viruses.
Computer glitches are however easy to fix, as some of the problems don’t require special skill to fix. For instance, if you notice that your computer is experiencing a glitch, restarting the computer is capable of fixing several glitches. When you shutdown your computer, its memory is cleared, running programs are shut down and those bugs causing the glitch will be eliminated.
However some glitches can’t be fixed by ordinary shutting down the computer, examples of such glitches are the one that the FAA computer is facing now. The reason is that the glitch is caused by more complex factors, such as computer virus, ransomware file or possibly malware. This type of glitches requires the service of professional computer software engineers to face them.
A fake computer glitch is any false or spurious signal caused due to electric power. Fake glitch is carried out to either prank or disrupt the activities of such computers. The FAA is not seen as a fake computer glitch. They have to employ the service of their smartest software engineer to handle the problem.
Possible causes of FAA computer glitch.
Even though, no official publication about the course of the glitch we can as well make our assumption from the information that is flying around.
First, we were told that the glitch was caused by “Bad File” or “Damaged file”. But this statement become contradicting with the statement released by FAA official during an internal meeting, he said that the glitch was caused due to an error made by one of the NOTAM system engineer. He want further to say that he interchanged different files on the system.
Recall when pressmen ask President Joe Biden about the cause of the glitch, He noted that either he or the department of transportation know what the problem is all about.
Now the question still remains, what caused NOTAM system glitches?. From our end here we can assume what might be the cause.
Below are our assumptions on what might have caused the NOTAM system glitch.
Carelessness: If what the FAA official said about the engineer who interchanged files on the system is true. That means that the problem was caused by the carelessness of the engineer.
Suspected Ransomware attack: if we are to trace the whole story behind that damaged file version of the story, you will see that it’s more like a malware attack. It’s possible that those Cybercriminals are trying to steal some vital information from the NOTAM system. Assuming they succeeded they would have demanded for ransom.
Moses Francis
