Aviation Groups Have Complained for Years About the Outdated FAA Alert System That Crashed Today

When a mix of bad weather and an outdated crew-tracking system caused a meltdown last month at Southwest Airlines, forcing the cancellation of thousands of flights, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was unflinching in her criticism of the airline.

“Southwest Airlines failed its customers. Point blank,” she said, promising that “The Department of Transportation will hold them accountable to their commitments to make their customers whole.”

Thus far, Jean-Pierre has been less critical of the flight delays and cancellations that occurred today due to an outdated flight system for which the federal government is responsible.

Late Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) system—which informs pilots of breaking flight information—crashed, leading the agency to delay all domestic flight departures this morning.

The Associated Press, relying on FlightAware data, reports that some 7,000 flights were delayed and over 1,000 were canceled, causing the usual traveler misery. The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon that corrupted data on a backup NOTAM system delayed getting the alert system back online.

The FAA has not disclosed the precise cause of the NOTAM outage. Jean-Pierre has also been pretty tight-lipped, saying only that the problem didn’t appear to result from a cyberattack and that the Department of Transportation (DOT) would investigate. The fact a federal agency failed travelers went unmentioned.

Long before today’s outages, the FAA’s NOTAM system was criticized for being an outdated mess.

Created in the 1940s, it’s intended to alert pilots to breaking information about their flight, such as a closed runway at their destination or a light being out on an air control tower. Pilots are supposed to review these NOTAM reports before taking off.

Pilots and aviation professionals complain that the notices they receive from the system are overly long and poorly organized. Critical updates about a closed runway can be t