The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outage on Wednesday has been attributed to a corrupt file, as per an investigation still underway. The FAA is committed to taking all necessary steps to prevent a similar disruption in the future.
Initial investigations indicate that the issue originated from a damaged database file. However, there is no current evidence pointing towards a cyberattack, according to the FAA. Further investigation is ongoing to identify if the corruption was caused by an individual or a routine database operation.
The system failure led to significant flight delays and an unprecedented halt of all aircraft departures across the nation. When officials discovered the issue on Tuesday, they decided to reboot the system during the early hours of Wednesday morning, causing minimal disruption to air travel.
The corrupt file was found in the main Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which provides pilots with crucial flight information. Notably, a corrupt file was also found in the backup system. This significant issue led FAA officials to shut down and reboot the main NOTAM system, a process that typically takes around 90 minutes.