According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) there is neither a “classic” software error nor a hacker attack behind the flight cancellation on January 11th. Instead, it was found that employees of a third-party company responsible for NOTAM maintenance “unintentionally deleted files”.
So it was a human error that had widespread repercussions. That now reports that Wall Street Journal. It had already been leaked that the system failed after “employees who didn’t follow the procedure” corrupted files.
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Database damaged
According to the preliminary results of the incident investigation, the data deletion took place during the synchronization of the main and backup databases. The employees only noticed the error when it was too late, because the deleted data proved necessary to keep the warning system running. Without the NOTAM system, pilots are missing important information such as warnings of potential hazards along the flight path, flight restrictions and runway closures. Therefore, the FAA was forced to stop air traffic in the event of the failure. The FAA also stated that it had found “no evidence of a cyberattack or malicious intent to date.” However, it is still unclear how deleting some files could cause the entire system to crash. According to the FAA, it has now taken measures to make the system more resilient.
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