Senators questioned the head of the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday, seeking answers after a series of safety incidents and FAA computer outages that caused thousands of flight cancellations have caused raises concerns about the safety and reliability of air travel.
Almost a week after the Southwest holiday crisis hearingActing FAA head Billy Nolen testified before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding a computer outage that prompted the agency to order the shutdown.
The incident brought all air traffic to a halt for the first time since the September 11, 2001 attacks. It also followed a series of safety incidents that have attracted national attention. – and drew the committee’s attention.
The chairman of the trade committee, Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said at the hearing: “These incidents are very disturbing. “They affect Americans’ confidence in our aviation system, and our aviation system infrastructure is critical to America’s safety and security.”
Nolen told the Senate panel in prepared remarks that the FAA has implemented a new set of protocols to ensure such incidents do not occur again. He also called on Congress to invest more in FAA modernization efforts.
Some of these protocols include “synchronization latency to ensure that bad data from the database cannot affect the standby database” and ensure that many individuals are “present and involved.” monitor as work on the database takes place”.
On January 11, FAA experienced Notice to Aviation Missions — the warning system pilots use — is down due to a contractor accidentally deleted file during the update process. Outage caused thousands of flights to be delayed, just two weeks after Southwest cancel nearly 17,000 flights.
According to Nolen, the NOTAM outage has sparked criticism of FAA’s outdated technology, some of which is based on 30-year-old infrastructure and software.
Nolen also shared that the FAA is significantly increasing its efforts to replace the obsolete NOTAM system due to decommissioning, with a view to completely replacing it by 2025.
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At the hearing, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a senior member of the Senate commerce committee, criticized Nolen for the FAA’s inability to modernize and the outdated NOTAM system.
“The FAA ordered the shutdown of the entire national airspace system for the first time since September 11, which is 22 years ago,” Cruz said. “Stopping on the ground is because America is under attack. But this time around, this ground stop is the result of federal agencies’ inability to modernize.”
Nolen said he cannot guarantee that there will never be another problem with the NOTAM system following the January 11 outage.
“What I can say is that we are doing our best to modernize and review our procedures,” suggested Nolen.
Nolen also mentioned the recent series of near misses that have occurred over the past few months.
On January 13, a Delta Air Lines plane nearly collided with an American Airlines plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
Then, at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Southwest and FedEx planes nearly 100 feet away from collision when both planes try to use the same runway for takeoff and landing.
Cruz played a simulation of a near-collision between Southwest and FedEx planes at the AUS at the hearing, emphasizing that the incident could have been fatal.
“If you were sitting on that Southwest flight, and you knew you were going to have a plane crash over your head and kill everyone on that plane, how appalled you would be,” Cruz said.
In December, a United Airlines flight departing from Maui arrived 800 feet away plunge into the Pacific Ocean en route to San Francisco, first reported by The Air Current.
The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the near misses and the FAA form a team of experts to conduct a comprehensive air safety review, according to Reuters.
In that broader context, Nolen took the opportunity to bolster the commercial aviation industry’s safety record in the US, though he acknowledged that maintaining that was far from certain.
“We’re going through the safest times in the history of aviation, but we don’t take it for granted,” Nolen said. “Recent events remind us that we cannot be complacent and that we must continually invest in our aviation system.”
