Mistakes are said to be made by subcontractor employees during maintenance work.
On the 11th, it was revealed that one data file was damaged during maintenance work by an employee of a subcontractor, causing a computer error that caused a ‘complete suspension of air operations’ across the United States.
This employee did not follow established procedures regarding remuneration.
Authorities are investigating whether this was a singular mistake on the part of the staff or whether it was intentional.
Currently, the national system is operating normally. Flights canceled on the 12th accounted for less than 1%.
After the accident occurred on the night of the 10th, the computer system of NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions), a safety notification system sent by the Aviation Administration to pilots, stopped working.
The Notam system informs various safety-related information that aircraft may encounter at airports or routes. It contains information of various types and contents, from bird movements to runway construction.
Accordingly, the Aviation Administration suspended all take-offs across the country for 90 minutes at 7:00 am on the 11th. This resulted in over 10,000 domestic flights significantly delayed or cancelled.
The Notam system was installed 30 years ago in 1993 and there are no plans to improve it for the next six years.
Some of the systems have not been serviced in the 30 years since their initial installation.
At the end of last year, Southwest Airlines caused chaos when it canceled many flights due to a computer malfunction.