Tag Archive for: En Route Automation Modernization

Air travelers along the U.S. east coast experienced flight cancellations and delays this past Saturday, due to initially unspecified “technical issues” attributed to the air traffic control system.

Beginning some time late morning, hundreds of flights were affected by the problem. The FAA’s service was restored around 4:00 p.m. EDT, though it would take hours longer for the airlines to reschedule flights and flyers.

Although 492 flights were delayed and 476 flights were canceled, the FAA’s Twitter account did not mention the outage or mass flight disruptions until 4:06 p.m., when it said service had been restored.

In a tweet issued long after the outage began, the Federal Aviation Administration said, “The FAA is continuing its root cause analysis to determine what caused the problem and is working closely with the airlines to minimize impacts to travelers.”

The FAA’s Safety Briefing Twitter account made no mention at all of the outage, though it has advised of GPS system testing at various locations across the country.

Various news outlets were conflicted: airports were blamed, then the FAA blamed, and the public knew nothing at all except they were stuck for an indeterminate period.

Get used to this. There’s no sign FAA will change its communications methodology after several air travel disruptions this year alone “due to technical issues” or whatever catchy nondescript phrase airlines/airports/government chooses to use.

Is this acceptable? Hell no. Just read the last version of WaPo’s article about the outage; the lack of communication causes as much difficulty as the loss of service. How can travelers make alternative plans when they hear nothing at all about the underlying problem? They’re stuck wherever they are, held hostage by crappy practices if not policies.

It doesn’t help that the media is challenged covering what appears to be a technology problem. The Washington Post went back and forth as to the underlying cause. The final version of an article about this disruption is clean of any mentions of the FAA’s En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system, though earlier versions mention an upgrade to or component of that system as suspect. Read more →