U.S. House Passes Bill to Improve NOTAM System

The NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023 calls for a task force appointed by the FAA Administrator to review and reform the current system.

Amelia Walsh

Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 06:49 PM ET

Verified

The NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023 overwhelmingly passed by a vote of 424-4. [Credit: Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. House overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023 following a January 11 outage that caused the first nationwide ground stop since 9/11.
The incident, which disrupted thousands of flights, was caused by a contractor's accidental file deletion in the FAA's outdated Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs) system.
The proposed legislation aims to establish an FAA task force of industry stakeholders to review, reform, and enhance the stability and cybersecurity of the critical NOTAM system.
Having passed the House twice before, the bill now awaits Senate approval amidst calls for urgent modernization as the FAA works to transition to new international standards by 2024.

See a mistake? Contact us.

On January 25, the U.S. House passed a bipartisan bill to improve the FAA’s outdated notice to air missions (NOTAMs) system in order to prevent another mishap like the one on January 11 that resulted in the first nationwide ground stop experienced in the U.S. since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

NOTAMs are a critical component of flight safety used for notifying flight crews of changes in operations such as airport closures, runway use, weather, or restricted airspace. FARs require pilots to review NOTAMs prior to departure.