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WASHINGTON – A new rule from the Federal Aviation Administration will help airports detect and mitigate safety problems before they result in accidents or incidents. The final rule requires certain airports to develop and implement a safety management system (SMS).
“The safe operation of our nation’s airports is paramount during these historic times in aviation as we work to...
Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member Cruz, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide clarity on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) management of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, share details on recent events, and explain our efforts to modernize the NOTAM system.
Today is also an opportunity to discuss the modernization needs of the national airspace system (NAS) overall, some of the challenges we face, and some of the opportunities on the horizon.
We are experiencing the safest period in aviation history, but we do not take that for granted. Recent events remind us that we cannot become complacent and that we must continually invest in our aviation system.
2023 will be a big year for aviation. Our current authorization expires on September 30th, and there is sustained energy from both industry and government around the development of ideas and proposals to modernize the NAS and the FAA’s approach to managing it. As we delve into that reauthorization process, there are several important points we would like to highlight for the Committee. Right now, the FAA is managing three airspace systems to serve the diverse users of the NAS. The first is the classic or legacy system that many users of the NAS still count on. The second is the system that relies on the next generation of technology for improved communication, navigation, and surveillance. The FAA has operationalized the foundational pieces of this system, and we continue to deploy additional services as operator equipage and federal resources allow. The third is the future—a future that has already arrived. It is the system that must accommodate new entrants in all their forms, including drones, advanced air mobility aircraft, commercial spacecraft, and other new aircraft yet to be imagined. It will involve autonomous aircraft, data exchanges, and a dynamic airspace. For us to sustain, implement, and plan for all of these systems, we have a lot of work ahead. We look forward to partnering with the Committee to ensure that the FAA’s oversight and regulation of the NAS continue to deliver the level of aviation safety and efficiency expected by the American public, as new entrants come into service.
On our end, we must work with stakeholders and make strategic investments, and create an agile regulatory structure that maintains safety, ensures efficiency, and facilitates access for new entrants. We are committed to this work and need Congress to be a supportive partner both in terms of enacting a long-term reauthorization measure, and funding our modernization needs. We look forward to working with you on these challenges and assure you that safety will always guide our actions no matter the challenge.
A NOTAM contains essential information for airspace users providing safety information about particular aspects of the NAS that are not operating under normal status. FAA’s NOTAM system is a dynamic system that captures recent changes to conditions in the NAS. For example, NOTAMs frequently provide pilots and operators with information about an anomaly with a particular navigational aid, airport runway, or taxiway, or about an air space closure or a temporary flight restriction.
The FAA’s overall NOTAM system consists of two systems—an older U.S. NOTAM System (legacy system) and a newer Federal NOTAM System. The older portion of the NOTAM system relies on 30-year-old software and architecture. This portion collates NOTAM data from all sources and distributes it to some airspace users. The Federal NOTAM System portion is newer and serves as part of the foundation for the FAA’s ongoing NOTAM modernization effort.
NOTAM information comes from a variety of places: an airport or air traffic control tower that observes local changes, an FAA technician planning to work on a system, or an air service provider, to name a few. Airspace users enter and access the information from applications sitting on both portions of the FAA’s NOTAM system. Most airlines download NOTAMs from the FAA into their internal databases for dispatching aircraft. Users can also get NOTAMs from third party providers who get it from the FAA, or they can go to the primary source for specific NOTAM information, by calling a flight service station, air traffic control tower, or airport, for example.
Late on January 10, 2023, NOTAM applications and services became unreliable. Technical experts attempted to address the issue by, among other things, switching to a backup database. There are three NOTAM backup databases—one in Oklahoma City and two in Atlantic City. While technical experts worked through the night, the FAA activated a hotline to provide real-time status updates to system users. During this time, there were no reports of operational impacts. In the early morning hours of January 11, 2023, the system appeared to have been restored, but formatting issues persisted. To resolve this, FAA’s air traffic leadership directed the rebuild of the databases.
As the morning air traffic rush approached, and work on the system continued, I ordered a ground stop at approximately 7:15 a.m. EST, pausing all departures in the United States in order to maintain safety and preserve predictability. I did so after consulting with the airlines and safety experts. Once resiliency testing on the system was conducted, I lifted the ground stop at 9:07 a.m. EST on January 11, 2023.
The FAA’s preliminary findings are that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database. We have found no evidence of a cyber-attack or other malicious intent. After the incident, we implemented a synchronization delay to ensure that bad data from a database cannot affect a backup database. Additionally, we have implemented a new protocol that requires more than one individual to be present and engaged in oversight when work on the database occurs. As our review of the root causes of this incident continue, please know that the FAA will keep the Committee apprised of our findings.
Beginning in 2012 with the Pilot’s Bill of Rights (Public Law 112-153) and continuing in 2018 with the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-254), which further amended the Pilot’s Bill of Rights, Congress directed the FAA to continue developing and modernizing the NOTAM repository, in a public central location, in a manner that is Internet-accessible, machine-readable, and searchable. Since those enactments, the FAA has made progress modernizing the NOTAM system. This progress includes improvements not only to the NOTAM content and presentation/publication, but also to the information technology architecture that supports and delivers this vital safety information. The nearly decade-long modernization work includes transitioning away from the legacy portion of the system mentioned earlier. We expect that a significant portion of the modernization work will be complete by mid-2025. We continue to assess the feasibility of accelerating the current schedule.
The goal of the FAA’s NOTAM modernization effort is to provide NOTAMs that are complete, accurate, timely, and relevant to safe flight operations. The FAA has made great progress in fulfilling the congressional mandates for modernization, including close coordination with industry and the adoption of recommendations from industry stakeholders that use NOTAMs. Specifically, the FAA is working in coordination with the Aeronautical Information Services Reform Coalition (coalition), whose members include representatives from, among others, air carriers, aircraft owners, pilots, airport executives, labor interests of air carriers, general and business aviation, and international operators. Our continued work with the coalition is one of the many examples where a government-industry partnership has helped to significantly inform and improve the direction and quality of our work.
We are working to face the challenges in maintaining our systems while keeping pace with new and emerging technologies and entrants. However, we are committed to improving and securing our systems, finding new ways to be agile in order to face these challenges, and continuing to achieve the highest levels of safety and efficiency. We look forward to working with the Committee and this Congress in developing a long-term FAA reauthorization bill that accelerates the next era of aviation—one that is safe, efficient, sustainable, and open to all.
Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member Cruz, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide clarity on the FAA's management of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, share details on recent events, and explain our efforts to modernize the NOTAM system.
Today is also an opportunity to discuss the modernization needs of the national airspace system overall, some of the challenges we face, and some of the opportunities on the horizon.
We are experiencing the safest period in aviation history, but we do not take that for granted. Recent events remind us that we cannot become complacent and that we must continually invest in our aviation system.
I know we are here to discuss the challenges we experienced with our NOTAM system last month, so I want to provide a brief background about what we know so far.
Late on January 10, NOTAM applications and services became unreliable. Technical experts attempted to address the issue by, among other things, switching to a backup database. While technical experts worked through the night, the FAA activated a hotline to provide real-time status updates to airspace users. During this time, there were no reports of operational impacts.
In the early morning hours of January 11, the system appeared to have been restored, but formatting issues persisted. To resolve this, FAA’s air traffic leadership directed the rebuild of the databases.
As the morning air traffic rush approached, and work on the system continued, I ordered a ground stop at approximately 7:15 a.m. EST, pausing all departures in the United States in order to maintain safety and preserve predictability. I did so after consulting with the airlines and safety experts. Once resiliency testing on the system was conducted, I lifted the ground stop at 9:07 a.m. EST.
The FAA’s preliminary findings are that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database. We have found no evidence of a cyber-attack or other malicious intent.
After the incident, we implemented a synchronization delay to ensure that bad data from one database cannot affect a backup database. Additionally, we have implemented a new protocol that requires more than one individual to be present and engaged in oversight when work on the database occurs.
As our review of the root causes of this incident continues, please know that the FAA will keep the Committee apprised of our findings.
As you are well aware, 2023 will be a big year for aviation. Our current authorization expires on September 30th, and there is sustained energy from both industry and government around the development of ideas and proposals to modernize the NAS and the FAA’s approach to managing it. As we delve into that reauthorization process, there are several important points we would like to highlight for the Committee.
Right now, the FAA is managing three airspace systems to serve the diverse users of the NAS. The first is the classic or legacy system that many users still count on.
The second is the system that relies on the next generation of technology for improved communication, navigation, and surveillance. The FAA has operationalized the foundational pieces of this system, and we continue to deploy additional services as operator equipage and federal resources allow.
The third is the future—a future that has already arrived. It is the system that must accommodate new entrants in all their forms, including drones, advanced air mobility aircraft, commercial spacecraft, and other new aircraft yet to be imagined.
For us to sustain, implement, and plan for all of these systems, we have a lot of work ahead. We look forward to partnering with the Committee to ensure that the FAA’s oversight and regulation of the NAS continue to deliver the level of aviation safety and efficiency expected by the American public.
Before we get to questions, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some of the recent incidents we have seen throughout the system. I am sure that you and the public have seen some of the news reports about close calls on runways and other operational events.
Because I want to make sure we are giving the right amount of attention to all of these recent occurrences, I am
forming a safety review team to examine the U.S. aerospace system’s structure, culture, processes, systems, and integration of safety efforts.
The initial focus will be to hold a Safety Summit to examine what additional actions the aviation community needs to take to maintain our safety record. A group of commercial and general aviation leaders, labor partners, and others will examine which mitigations are working and why others appear to be not as effective as they once were.
I can say without reservation that the aviation professionals who comprise the American aerospace industry are proud of our safety record. But we all know that complacency has no place in air transportation -- whether it’s on the flight deck, in the control tower, the ramp or the dispatch center.
We are confident that we are taking the right steps here, and we look forward to working with the Committee and this Congress in developing a long-term FAA reauthorization bill that accelerates the next era of aviation—one that is safe, efficient, sustainable, and open to all.
High-powered laser pointers can incapacitate pilots flying airplanes with hundreds of passengers. To combat the threat, Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen requested laser manufacturers add a warning label to their packaging to make consumers aware of the safety risks and federal laws when using lasers.
Lasers may seem like just a toy, office tool, or game for most, but they can incapacitate pilots putting thousands of passengers at risk every year. People need to be...
WASHINGTON — Which state has the most commercial space launches? What launch site is the busiest? How many companies are licensed to conduct launch and reentry operations? You can find answers to all these questions and more by exploring the interactive commercial space data section of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Fact Book.
...Chair Graves, Ranking Member Larsen, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I am David Boulter, and I serve as the Acting Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a role I have held for almost a year. During my career, I have been fortunate to serve in numerous aviation roles both in industry with commercial air carriers and in government. Over the past 25 years, my government service includes positions in the FAA as an aviation safety inspector, director of operations for multiple legacy FAA flight programs, senior FAA representative in Afghanistan, and executive for the FAA’s Flight Program. My permanent position is the executive director of flight standards. I believe the breadth of my real-world experience has given me a common-sense approach that focuses on safety – and on constantly moving forward. In my mind, complacency and stagnation are equal threats to a safety culture.
In December 2020, Congress included the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act, with more than 100 provisions for the FAA to implement, in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. I thank the Committee for its leadership in passing this important legislation, and we have completed more than half of its directives. I also want to emphasize the efforts of the families of the victims of the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. This legislation would not have been possible without your tireless advocacy on behalf of your loved ones. The important work we have accomplished includes strengthening oversight of manufacturers that have delegated authority through the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program, instituting the Voluntary Safety Reporting Program for FAA safety employees, and recently issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require aircraft manufacturers, on-demand and for-hire operations (14 CFR Part 135), and air tour operators to implement a safety management system. We remain focused on implementation of this legislation and continue to make significant strides in fulfilling its requirements.
In recent months, the agency has made important headway in meeting additional statutory obligations aimed at improving safety and has moved a number of those rulemaking projects forward. I am proud to say that in my one-year tenure, we have published seven aviation safety rulemaking actions stemming from congressional direction.
At all times, the safety of the traveling public has been our top priority. The commercial aviation system in the United States currently operates at an unprecedented level of safety, but we do not take that for granted. We achieved this safety record because we have made a concerted effort to evolve in how we approach safety oversight – both in detecting risks and in responding to the risks identified. Key to this approach is a commitment to sharing data through an open and transparent safety culture to detect risks and address problems before accidents occur.
Our mission is continuous improvement in safety — even as we see significant changes on the horizon to how people and packages might travel by air in our busiest cities and across the country. The FAA is rising to that occasion. We are taking steps to establish a regulatory framework that enables innovation and manages the identified risks commensurate with desired operations. This ensures that new entrant aircraft and operators – including those seeking to conduct advanced air mobility (AAM) operations – will benefit from 120 years of lessons learned since the Wright brothers made their first controlled flight.
I would like to acknowledge my fellow panel members. I am encouraged that you asked representatives from a wide range of aviation interests to speak today. As we all know, aviation safety is a team effort, and we all share the mutual goal of making the world’s safest mode of transportation even safer. While we all have specific roles to play, we understand the solemn trust that the public has placed in us.
I think it is important to take a moment to recognize National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair, Jennifer Homendy, and the important collaborative relationship between our two agencies. We work jointly on accident investigations, with the FAA providing support with real-time information, technical data, transportation to accident scenes, and aviation safety inspector/accident investigator support and cooperation. We also collaborate on safety priorities, to include FAA responses to NTSB safety recommendations. Since 2011, the FAA has annually closed more recommendations than it has received, and the number of open recommendations for FAA (222) is at its lowest point in more than two decades. The FAA takes the NTSB’s role seriously and devotes a tremendous amount of time and attention to addressing their recommendations.
Today, I want to briefly share some of the actions we are taking to fulfill our safety mission, which extends from general aviation to commercial and air carrier operations.
Evolving our regulatory structure is necessary to enable new users of the airspace, and support innovation and new commercial operations with aircraft and technologies that are evolving at a pace not previously seen in our industry. Sustaining the agency’s safety record will be dependent upon the ability to be agile in our regulations, yet firm in our enforcement. Although we recognize the need to adapt to new technologies and enable their use, we must also manage risk and be deliberative in our decisions. The FAA is using modern tools and philosophies and incorporating performance-based regulation where possible to develop a regulatory environment that ensures aviation safety remains paramount. We have several recent examples of rulemaking that demonstrate our continued commitment to improving safety and providing flexibility to users of the National Airspace System (NAS).
While these past few months have been busy, we have fully staffed additional rulemaking projects and expect great progress in 2023. The resulting rules will have important implications for certain aircraft, operations, and pilots as we look to enhance the safety of existing operations, continue to normalize certain aspects of operations with unmanned aircraft, and integrate new entrant aircraft into our national airspace.
Our work to improve aviation safety does not stop at our borders. As Congress has directed in section 243 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, we continue our efforts as a global leader in aviation, and much of the globe is watching in anticipation of our plans for integrating new entrant aircraft into the NAS and the desired operations envisioned by manufacturers and future operators. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Personnel Training and Licensing Panel is tackling pilot qualification for AAM aircraft and the U.S. has been leading this activity. At the ICAO Assembly this past September, the FAA proposed that ICAO establish an advisory group that would connect all aspects of the AAM ecosystem as the world works to enable this industry. The proposal was well-received and work has begun to stand up a study group. We look forward to supporting that effort.
In addition to our important work on rules and the development of international consensus standards, we would be remiss to not mention how we support the aviation industry through the issuance of guidance and information to support rule implementation and operations by all airspace users. The FAA published one of the highly anticipated advisory circulars on flightpath management in November. This document provides both guidance and recommended practices for operators to implement operational procedures and training for managing the
airplane’s flight path, which includes manual flight operations and managing automated systems. Addressing pilot overreliance on automation through this guidance remains safety-critical. The foundation of its content originated from recommendations from our Air Carrier Training Aviation Rulemaking Committee and is a wonderful example of how industry and government can come together to address a challenge and achieve a common goal – enhancing safety.
In October, we published a revision to our guidance that supports recreational operations of unmanned aircraft and aligns with the statutory permissions afforded to those flyers by the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018.
Another huge accomplishment was the consolidation and updating of six -related advisory circulars into a single Aviation Weather Handbook that was published in November. This technical reference streamlines pilot access to all of the FAA’s weather documentation and is designed to support everyone who operates in the NAS – from recreational pilots to commercial pilots and dispatchers. Having current technical information about weather is a critical component to safe flying and pilot decision making and it is important that the FAA continue to support airspace users with handbooks like this.
It is an exciting time in aviation, and we have a lot to look forward to – this also means there is no shortage of work ahead of us. I am extremely proud of the work our staff is doing to address the breadth of aviation safety work we have in front of us. With innovation, it is important we continue to develop and train our workforce so we can continue to meet the regulatory needs of this industry and our safety mission. We are executing workforce strategies to do this while also onboarding diverse talent with the right expertise to strengthen our workforce. The development and expansion of the professional aviation workforce in general is also critical to our industry, and we are proud to promote exciting careers like being an aviation mechanic or a pilot through Aviation Workforce Development grants.
Finally, we will continue to engage with the aviation community, our labor partners, and industry stakeholders, on addressing the safety and sustainability challenges that face our industry through our established committees and outreach events. Our collaborative efforts with long-standing groups like the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), the General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (GAJSC), and the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), help us achieve our collective safety mission and continue to push the envelope in finding ways to enhance safety for all stakeholders. Through the more recent establishment of the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) team a year ago, we partnered with aviation stakeholders to find a safe and practical path to eliminate the use of leaded aviation fuel by no later than 2030 without adversely affecting the existing piston-engine fleet.
Thank you for this opportunity to share information on some of our most important work. We look forward to continued support from the committee and subcommittee on maintaining the safest aviation system in the world during this time of rapid innovation.
RALEIGH — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority invite the public to discuss the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for a proposed runway replacement project at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).
The Airport Authority proposes relocating Runway 5L/23R and then converting the existing runway to a taxiway to meet existing and forecasted...
SAN JUAN – The public is invited to participate in a virtual meeting about a proposal to modify the airspace around Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) proposal expands the area where pilots interact with air traffic control and will not change existing flight paths. The airspace change improves the ability to manage the area’s complexity and volume of aviation activities.
The virtual...