A No-Go for NOTAMs—Flight Delays Caused by Major Computer Issue

 

Severe weather caused significant flight delays during the holiday season, but with clearer skies, passengers resumed regular air travel until late evening Tuesday, January 10, 2023.

An overnight outage of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice to Air Missions System (NOTAMs) grounded thousands of flights in the U.S. on Wednesday morning, causing massive delays. Investigations are underway to determine the root cause of the situation now that the outage is over. Early reports indicate a damaged file may be responsible for the outage, but it does not appear the shutdown was due to a cyberattack.

Are We There Yet’s Grant Harrell, was following the story closely, and provided some context on the NOTAMs situation while flights were still in a holding pattern.

Grants Thoughts:

“Hi, this is Grant with Market Scales transportation, mobility focused video podcast series: Are We There Yet? And the question of the day today, Wednesday, January 11, is a return to normal flight operations after a major computer issue within the systems. Are we there yet? And unfortunately, as of about 9:00 AM central time today, Wednesday, the answer is no, Although the FAA is working very hard to resolve these issues, flights are still grounded and delays seen throughout the entire country.

This is a computer issue within their NOTAM system, which is the notice to air mission system. It keeps pilots and other flight personnel aware of ground and air hazards, things like closed runways, navigational issues, for example and this system is down in causing these delays throughout the country.

Flight aware leading flight tracking service as hundreds of flights grounded throughout the United States. Another source says about 2,500 plus flights in total that have been grounded due to these issues. And everyone within the industry, especially the FAA working very hard one pilot says he’s never seen anything like this happen.

Very much a unique issue. One family, for example, in Hawaii has been on their plane for about five hours now waiting for their flight to take off. So myself and everyone within the industry are very much watching this issue and hoping that things get resolved shortly.”

Article by James Kent

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

human-centered
How Human-Centered Design Led to a Startup Accelerator for Education: A Conversation with Transcend Network’s Co-founder Michael Narea
June 20, 2025

The convergence of human-centered design and education innovation is reshaping how edtech ventures emerge and scale. As AI enables hyper-efficiency and bootstrapped entrepreneurship becomes more viable, the real differentiator is empathy—founders who listen deeply to users before building solutions. A McKinsey study of 300 public companies found that design-led organizations significantly outperformed their peers, with…

Read More
care navigation
AI-Powered Care Navigation Reduces Healthcare Spend and Improves Patient Access
June 20, 2025

The U.S. healthcare system is strained by rising costs, uneven quality, and fragmented care navigation. Employers are bearing the brunt, spending more without always securing better care for their teams. According to the RAND Corporation, one effective strategy is to “change their network and benefit designs to encourage patients to use lower‑priced, higher‑value providers…

Read More
edge computing
Building the Wireless Future: Low-Power IoT, Edge Computing, and the End of the Gs
June 19, 2025

As the global race to 6G heats up, telecom providers, governments, and tech companies are investing billions to advance the next generation of hyperconnected infrastructure. European operators urge regulators to release more spectrum to stay competitive, while U.S. programs like the USDA’s ReConnect have funneled over $1 billion into rural fiber backhaul. Meanwhile, companies like…

Read More
healthcare operations
Healthcare Operations Improve with AI That Unites Data, Automation, and Ethics
June 18, 2025

Generative AI has captured the public imagination, but its most transformative use cases may lie far from flashy consumer tools. In healthcare operations, where complexity, inefficiency, and fragmentation remain persistent challenges, AI is now driving measurable improvements. Research suggests AI-enabled healthcare systems could cut administrative costs by up to $360 billion in the U.S. alone….

Read More