PILOT INSURANCE CENTER

FAA accepting panel recommendations on FTI failure

The recommendations of a panel that reviewed a telecommunications failure last November have been accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The panel determined that a failure in the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure on November 19 was caused as the result of an upgrade to the system. The FAA came to the same conclusion in its own review, which determined mistakes were made in maintenance and monitoring during upgrades.

Recommendations presented by the panel include using automated tools for configuration changes to the network's devices, a review of operation and maintenance checklists and making sure an appropriate number of FTI technicians is always available.

The FAA is looking at a number of ways to implement the recommendations. Randy Babbitt, FAA administrator, said the next few months should see changes based on the suggestions from the panel.

"The outage last November was unacceptable," Babbitt said. "These recommendations will help us put the necessary safeguards in place to prevent similar events from happening again."

Although radar and communications for air traffic control were not affected by the FTI outage, the FAA is still looking to upgrade those systems. Through the Next Generation Air Transportation System, tracking flights will be done with a satellite-based GPS, which should guard against air collisions.

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