First Computer System Installed 30 Years Ago
Some Parts Never Upgraded
[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] On the 1st (U.S. Eastern Time), the nationwide 'aviation chaos' in the United States was revealed to have been caused by a subcontractor employee damaging a data file while working without following the prescribed procedures, Bloomberg News reported on the 12th.
Bloomberg, citing the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), reported that the system is currently functioning normally and that flight cancellations on the 12th were less than 1%. According to the FAA announcement, on the night of the 10th, a database file was corrupted, causing the FAA's NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) computer system, which sends safety notices related to operations to pilots, to stop working.
On the 1st (Eastern Time, USA), the nationwide 'aviation chaos' in the United States was revealed to have been caused by a subcontractor employee damaging a data file while working without following the prescribed procedures, Bloomberg News reported on the 12th. [Image source=Yonhap News]
The NOTAM system provides various safety-related information that aircraft may encounter at airports or air routes. It includes a wide range of information, from the movement of bird flocks to runway construction. This system was first installed in 1993, but it is known that there are no update plans for the next six years from now. It is also reported that some systems have never been updated in the 30 years since their initial installation.
On the morning of the 11th, around 7:20 AM, the FAA ordered all airports nationwide to halt aircraft takeoffs completely. The takeoff ban was lifted about 90 minutes later, around 8:50 AM. More than 10,000 flights were delayed or canceled.
Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, reported that based on the investigation results so far, it appears that two subcontractor employees responsible for the FAA's computer system caused errors in the core data used in the NOTAM system.
The anonymous source explained that there are procedures to prevent FAA system data from being corrupted during computer operations, but these were not followed. In other words, the system administrators violated the procedures they were supposed to comply with and arbitrarily changed the file contents.
He stated that the FAA is conducting an investigation to determine whether the subcontractor employees' file changes were intentional and, if intentional, whether there was any malicious intent.
When the system encountered problems, technicians switched to a backup system, but it is known that the backup system also attempted to access the same corrupted data, preventing normal operation.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
