The primary air safety system for the Federal Aviation Administration crashed for several hours this weekend, sparking fears of travel chaos just days after two fatal accidents which left 73 dead.
The NOTAM system, short for ‘Notice to Air Missions’ suddenly went down late on Saturday night across the United States and was not restored until 11am Sunday.
NOTAM is the FAA’s primary system for providing real-time safety alerts to pilots in the air.
The essential tool gives updates about any hazards on the ground or in the air, including but not limited to closed runways, navigational system disruptions and airspace restrictions.
Before a flight, pilots are required to consult NOTAMs, which list potential adverse impacts on flights.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy warned about the outage on Saturday night via X – just four days after 67 people perished when a passenger plane collided with a Black Hawk Army helicopter over Washington DC.
‘The primary NOTAM system is experiencing a temporary outage, but there is currently no impact to the National Airspace System because a backup system is in place,’ he said.
‘FAA has set up a hotline to communicate with aviation stakeholders and will send notices every 30 minutes with updates on the system’s status.’
The Federal Aviation Administration’s primary air safety system crashed for several hours, sparking fears of travel chaos across the United States just days after two fatal accidents which left 73 dead
Photos show large rescue and emergency crews cleaning up the wreckage of the Philadelphia plane crash outside of Roosevelt Mall in Philadelphia on Saturday morning
An American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with the helicopter, carrying three soldiers, and went careening into the Potomac River
There were initial warnings the outage could cause widespread carnage at airports across the nation, but the FAA later revealed the system was up and running again with no major impacts.
‘There were no operational impacts in the National Airspace System,’ a spokesperson said.
Travelers had been warned to check with airlines about the status of their flights as a result of the outage, with Duffy warning there could ‘be some residual delays.’
The agency is investigating the cause of the outage.
It came amid heightened fears of air travel in the United States after two separate fatal crashes last week.
First, an American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with the helicopter, carrying three soldiers, and went careening into the Potomac River.
There were no survivors.
A small air ambulance, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, nosedived to the ground Friday evening, engulfing the area in flames and killing six, including a pediatric patient
Trump also blamed the DC crash on DEI – a policy the Biden Administration heavily pushed – for the failure of the crash (pictured: rescue crews in the Potomac River)
Then on Friday evening an air ambulance carrying six people, including a young girl, crashed in a residential area of Philadelphia causing chaotic scenes on the ground.
The Learjet 55 aircraft departed the Northeast Philadelphia Airport on Friday evening and been travelling to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri before it lost control shortly after takeoff.
Doorbell footage caught the jet hurtling to the ground before exploding in a large fireball after less than a minute in the air.
NOTAM suffered a significant crash in January 2023, grounding 11,000 flights and leading to the first nationwide U.S. ground stop since 2001.
