Aviation overhaul bill passes US House... for the third time
- Reference: 1674756249
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/01/26/notam_overhaul_passes_house/
- Source link:
Don't go thinking that [1]NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023 will guarantee action, though. The bill's sponsor, Minnesota Republican Representative Pete Stauber, has introduced the same bill for the past two congressional sessions.
NOTAMs are used to relay last-minute information to flight crews that could affect their routes, like a change in conditions at an airport, a surprise storm or other phenomena that endanger the flight.
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The [3]2021 and [4]2019 versions both passed the House as well, but fizzled out once they reached the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. This year, though, things are a bit different – the US just had its first nationwide flight grounding since September 11, 2001.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was forced to [7]ground all US departures for several hours on January 11 because NOTAM went offline. The cause was later revealed to be a pretty serious mistake on the part of some [8]contractors working to fix a synchronization issue between the live and backup copies of the database.
In the process of working on their "fix," said contractors grounded 11,000 flights by deleting some rather important files. [9]Per Reuters , the FAA identified the contractors as being from IT services firm Spatial Front, which The Register contacted for confirmation, but hasn't heard back.
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The FAA said in a letter to lawmakers seen by the newswire that all Spatial Front employees directly involved in the deletion had their access to FAA buildings and systems terminated.
Third time's the charm?
If this latest version of Stauber's bill makes it through the Senate, the FAA will be directed to create a task force of air carriers, labor unions, aviation businesses, and safety and security experts to review and recommend improvements to the NOTAM system.
Speaking of outages
Southwest Airlines, which was at the center of a widespread scheduling disruption over the holidays that [11]stranded thousands , predicted first quarter losses because travelers appear to be avoiding the budget flyer.
"Thus far in January 2023, the company has experienced an increase in flight cancellations and a deceleration in bookings, primarily for January and February 2023," Southwest [12]said yesterday. Additionally, extra man hours invested in dealing with the December meltdown mean non-fuel operating costs will be considerably higher in Q1 too.
The airliner today reported [13]preliminary calendar Q4 results that show it made a $220 million net loss. Bob Jordan, CEO and President pinned this on "pre-tax negative impact of approximately $800 million" caused by the cancellation of 16,700 flights.
"Based on current revenue and cost trends, we currently expect a first quarter 2023 net loss," he added.
[14]Massive outage grounded US flights because someone accidentally deleted a file
[15]FAA grounds all US departures after NOTAM goes down
[16]FAA sets 2024 deadline for preventing 5G crash landings
[17]Southwest Airlines blames IT breakdown for stranding holiday travelers
In a statement along with his introduction of the 2021 version of his NOTAMs bill, Stauber [18]said he had spoken with a number of pilots over the years as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and said several have expressed concerns about NOTAM.
Of the outage in January, Stauber [19]said when he introduced the latest bill the day after that the incident came as no surprise.
"Yesterday's failures show the urgent need for updates and improvements to the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system to keep air traffic moving safely in our skies," Stauber said. Of its passage to the senate, Stauber said he hopes "the Senate acts and passes this important legislation to help ensure another NOTAM system failure does not occur."
Stauber's office didn't immediately respond to requests for additional information.
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US Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) have [21]introduced companion legislation in the Senate, but the bill doesn't appear to be publicly available yet.
"It is imperative that a group of aviation experts be assembled to look at ways to improve this vital safety system. That's exactly what our legislation would do," Capito said. ®
Get our [22]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/346/text
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y9MGEaQC0yvVZY61gjT6AAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1262/text
[4] https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1775/all-actions
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y9MGEaQC0yvVZY61gjT6AAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y9MGEaQC0yvVZY61gjT6AAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/11/faa_grounds_all_us_departures/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/21/faa_outage_reasons/
[9] https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-faa-some-aviation-computer-system-users-experiencing-slower-response-times-2023-01-25/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y9MGEaQC0yvVZY61gjT6AAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/28/southwest_outdated_it/
[12] https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/southwest-airlines-forecasts-first-quarter-loss-cancellations-impact-2023-01-26/
[13] https://www.southwestairlinesinvestorrelations.com/news-and-events/news-releases/2023/01-26-2023-114537893
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/21/faa_outage_reasons/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/11/faa_grounds_all_us_departures/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/10/faa_2024_altimeter_deadline/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/28/southwest_outdated_it/
[18] https://stauber.house.gov/media/press-releases/stauber-reintroduces-aviation-safety-legislation
[19] https://stauber.house.gov/media/press-releases/stauber-reintroduces-aviation-safety-legislation-improve-notice-air-missions
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y9MGEaQC0yvVZY61gjT6AAAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=A2BFC69C-50D7-4542-BFF4-22E323BBAA99
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: An obvious solution
Way back when I learned to fly, before the internet was widely available to the public (before Al Gore invented it, I mean), we didn't have easy access to electronic versions of the Notices To Airmen (NOTAMs). They were given to you when you called in for your weather briefing. You had to write down any pertinent information on your notepad along with the weather information. Granted, I'm sure they were electronic on the FAA's side, we just got them over the phone.
At one point, there was an FAA contracted system (DUATS) that you could call with a modem and a terminal emulator. From there you could print the NOTAMs. But, as people have mentioned, there would often be a long list of NOTAMs, most of which may not affect your flight, and they would all print together leading to a big stack of paper. So it was better to just take notes anyway.
The NOTAMS are specific to your route of flight, yet they can be many pages long even for one short flight. Printing all of the NOATMs for the entire US would be like printing an 800 page phone book everyday.
Re: An obvious solution
Hang on, I was nodding along in a "me too" fashion until the bit about getting ALL NOTAM in DUATS. Admittedly it's been years since I've flown in the US, but I would have sworn that I could provide my flight plan (by waypoints and dept/arr airfields) and it would choose only the applicable NOTAM for my route and immediate area?
Is my memory that bad? :'(
Re: An obvious solution
A daft solution...
Never mind the reams of wasted paper and resources to distribute them, they will be out-of-date half way through a flight. Electronic submission means they are up-to-the-minute relevant.
Re: An obvious solution
>they will be out-of-date half way through a flight
NOTAMS are issued upto 7days in advance
NOTAMS must be consulted BEFORE filing a flight plan
Pilots contact ATC or FSS for any change during flight
On this side of the Atlantic...
.. The UK CAA publishes NOTAMS on their website from where they can be scanned, printed or copied before you fly.
In addition there's a rather good graphical application, SPINE, that displays NOTAMS on a map. This makes selecting the NOTAMS relevant to your planned flight rather easy to do before you read their description and active times.
In addition you can download them as a file that is loaded into your onboard electronic navigation system. I've been flying with this setup for the last 15 years.
An obvious solution
These notices need publishing on a daily basis
Distributing them electronically seems to be subject to fsck-ups and/or super-ninja-global-state-sponsored-hyper-cyber-something threats
Meanwhile the print journalism industries have been facing a sharp decline leaving a largely unused capacity for printing daily news sheets