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We Now Know What Caused the FAA Outage that Grounded and Delayed Thousands of Flights
Townhall ^ | 01/12/2023 | Leah Barkoukis

Posted on 01/12/2023 9:09:48 PM PST by SeekAndFind

After all flights in the U.S. were grounded early Wednesday morning over a system failure, the Federal Aviation Administration said it traced the issue back to a “damaged database file.” 

“The FAA is continuing a thorough review to determine the root cause of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system outage,” the FAA said in a statement Wednesday night. “Our preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file.”

The Notice to Air Missions system provides safety information to flight crews. 

“At this time, there is no evidence of a cyber attack,” the statement continued. “The FAA is working diligently to further pinpoint the causes of this issue and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again.”

We are working diligently to further pinpoint the causes of this issue and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again. (2/2)— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023

Embattled Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the review will continue. 

At my direction, FAA is continuing its system review. Preliminary work has traced the issue to a damaged database file, with no evidence of a cyber attack.

FAA will continue its work to further pinpoint the sources of this issue and steps to prevent it from occurring again.— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 11, 2023

Lawmakers blasted Buttigieg after the grounding, which was the latest incident in a string of transportation disasters to happen under his leadership. 

This is completely unacceptable. Secretary Buttigieg has been focused more on "racist roads" than on making sure our transportation is reliable.

Which is, you know, his job.

He has failed every major test as Transportation Secretary. https://t.co/npT7zwkb9Z— Rep. Dan Bishop (@RepDanBishop) January 11, 2023

Pete Buttigieg couldn't organize a one-car funeral.

He was never remotely qualified for this role.— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) January 11, 2023

Making acronyms more “inclusive” by renaming the NOTAM system from “Notice to Airmen” to “Notice to Air Missions.” I wish I was joking.

Wokeism is a disease. Next time, try doing your job, Pete.— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) January 12, 2023

The American people deserve answers on why domestic flights were grounded NATIONWIDE in light of the FAA’s recent technological issues. We’ve faced one transportation crisis after another under Transportation Secretary Buttigieg's failed leadership. https://t.co/f8FPiByFUZ— Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) January 11, 2023




TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: faa; flights; outage
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1 posted on 01/12/2023 9:09:48 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

They’re supposed to immediately the first half hour say “There is no connection to terrorism” and then “we have no idea yet what happened and are now reaching out to the public for any sort of clues you may give us.”

To now say “no terrorism” shows it up as phony——which it is.


2 posted on 01/12/2023 9:13:13 PM PST by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
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To: SeekAndFind
"the Federal Aviation Administration said it traced the issue back to a “damaged database file.”


3 posted on 01/12/2023 9:14:22 PM PST by Enterprise
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To: SeekAndFind

C’mon man! Pete Buttigieg is too busy chestfeeding his captive infant/victim to waste time on transportation!


4 posted on 01/12/2023 9:18:06 PM PST by WMarshal (Neocons and leftards are the same species of vicious rat)
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To: All

Watching porn on the company computers will do that to you.


5 posted on 01/12/2023 9:20:05 PM PST by BipolarBob (The party never stops until someone calls the cops.)
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To: SeekAndFind

NOTAMs? It is not very complicated to maintain a dB of flight hazards and notices to airmen.

Not like it is tracking on radar and coordinating flights is it?


6 posted on 01/12/2023 9:29:16 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
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To: Sequoyah101
NOTAMs? It is not very complicated to maintain a dB of flight hazards and notices to airmen.

It is if the last person who actually understood how the database works retired a dozen years ago and you've been getting away with just avoiding doing anything that would upset the old girl for that long.

These types of systems are everywhere and run a lot of the systems that keep society going (social security, medical insurance, banking, drivers licenses, etc...). Being old isn't bad, ones and zeros don't get moldy, but the forty to fifty years of spaghetti code, workarounds and exception handling routines for things that were once rare one off events... those things have made the systems nearly impossible to maintain, and totally impossible to maintain well.

7 posted on 01/12/2023 9:40:32 PM PST by jz638
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To: jz638

During the beginning of Covid in CT they were begging retired people to come back and anyone with COBOL experience in large systems to help as the unemployment system with it’s decades of modifications and alterations was unable to handle the influx of applicants and the temporary Covid related changes.


8 posted on 01/12/2023 9:48:16 PM PST by matt04 ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

That doesn’t really answer the question. If it was a damaged database file, the real question is how did it get damaged.


9 posted on 01/12/2023 9:49:40 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: jz638

Not a programmer but I have bought a few and had people manage them. Hands off, not broke, don’t fix works best. When people start appending, patching, “improving” things go wrong. What is worse are patches with cascading knock on effects and unintended consequences.

Just a dB system announcing conditions of runways and such. Not rocket science really.


10 posted on 01/12/2023 9:51:42 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Ah yes, the old computer glitch meme. When all else fails, blame the computer.


11 posted on 01/12/2023 9:59:43 PM PST by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF pilot. USAF aviation runs in the family )
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To: SeekAndFind

Wokeism is a disease. Next time, try doing your job, Pete.— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) January 12, 2023


When eyepatch McCain holds a valid level of moral condemnation over your job performance.... Yikes Pete. Maybe less time felating and more working.


12 posted on 01/12/2023 9:59:45 PM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
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To: SeekAndFind

Yeh, sure! 🙄


13 posted on 01/12/2023 10:13:35 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: SeekAndFind

Buttplug was using the system to watch gay porn and caught a virus


14 posted on 01/12/2023 10:17:19 PM PST by NWFree (Somebody has to say it 🤪)
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To: SeekAndFind

Reminds me of the Gateway computer salesman trying to tell me my computer was delayed due to a “kernel problem.”
“I know what a kernel is. Do you? I’m pretty sure that’s not what’s holding it up.”
Busted.
I don’t have to be a pilot to know they’re flat out lying, but I am and they are.


15 posted on 01/12/2023 10:46:02 PM PST by pops88 ( Helping usher the glory of God into Las Vegas)
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To: SeekAndFind

Since when does the FAA mess with software during peak traffic hours? Software is changed at night to avoid disruption to traffic unless it completely fails. Why would they have 52 air refueling tankers and fighter jets ready to take to the air at the same time? Something else is going on that they aren’t talking about.


16 posted on 01/13/2023 12:43:25 AM PST by mountainlion (Live well those that did not make it back.)
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To: WMarshal
C’mon man! Pete Buttigieg is too busy chestfeeding his captive infant/victim to waste time on transportation!

I'm guessing it's extremely difficult to do any job well while a blunt object is being repeatedly rammed up one's butt.

17 posted on 01/13/2023 1:27:10 AM PST by Rocco DiPippo
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To: matt04

“During the beginning of Covid in CT they were begging retired people to come back and anyone with COBOL experience in large systems to help as the unemployment system with it’s decades of modifications and alterations was unable to handle the influx of applicants and the temporary Covid related changes.

Fortran (Notam system) and COBAL coders are probably Indian. They provide the bulk of legacy software expertise, since the early 2000’s.

I wonder who is currently under contract to provide system management for this ungainly behemoth of a Notam/Fortran system?


18 posted on 01/13/2023 1:36:31 AM PST by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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To: SeekAndFind

Just a test to see if the federal government can lock down all air travel with the flick of a switch on a computer.


19 posted on 01/13/2023 1:40:53 AM PST by political1 (Love your neighbors)
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To: Rocco DiPippo

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JD87BKcQu44


20 posted on 01/13/2023 2:27:35 AM PST by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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