Kansas Senator Jerry Moran co-authored legislation alongside Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) to study and help prevent future Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outages like the one seen on Jan. 11th.
On that day, the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system failed, which grounded flights nationwide. NOTAM alerts pilots of safety and location hazards on flight routes. The proposed legislation, known as the NOTAM Improvement Act, would require the FAA to establish a task force to strengthen the resiliency and cybersecurity of the NOTAM system.
The task force would be comprised of representatives from air carriers and airports, along with airline pilots, aircraft dispatchers, air traffic control specialists and FAA personnel unions, general and business aviation representatives, and aviation safety and cybersecurity experts.
Earlier this month, Sens. Moran and Klobuchar spoke with FAA Acting Administrator Billy Nolen following the NOTAM system failure to discuss his agency’s efforts to identify the factors behind the system outage and prevent similar breakdowns from happening again.
