National

FAA says contractor’s “unintentional” error caused recent outage that disrupted thousands of flights

CBS News reports that the computer glitch which forced the suspension of U.S. domestic airline departures this month was caused by a contractor, who mistakenly deleted some critical system files.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Thursday that damage to a database file, which was already suspected as a cause of the January 11 outages, prompted the thousands of delays and cancellations. For hours, pilots weren’t able to access a system called Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM), which gives them advance notice about hazards, changes to airport facilities, and other critical information.

Amid their continuing investigation, the FAA released a preliminary report which showed that “contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database.”

The FAA made the necessary repairs, and says it took steps to prevent similar issues in the future.

In Washington, the issue brought attention to the fact that the FAA has been operating without an administrator since March.

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