Comment by ineedasername | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ineedasername | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised there's not more activity on this here on HN. I guess info is limited, so I found what I could from ATCSCC notices for today [1]. These are all the notices but portions only w/ redundant bits removed. See link in citation if you want full messages. Times here appear to be GMT:

    004 DCC 01/11/23 NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE_FYI 01/11/23 00:47
        THE NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE IS BEING ACTIVATED TO ADDRESS THE EQUIPMENT
        OUTAGE ISSUES FOR THE UNITED STATES NOTAM SYSTEM.

    013 DCC 01/11/23 NOTAM SYSTEM EQUIPMENT OUTAGE_FYI 01/11/23 04:18
        THE UNITED STATES NOTAM SYSTEM FAILED AT 2028Z.  SINCE THEN NO NEW
        NOTAMS OR AMENDMENTS HAVE BEEN PROCESSED.  TECHNICIANS ARE CURRENTLY
        WORKING TO RESTORE THE SYSTEM AND THERE IS NO ESTIMATE FOR
        RESTORATION OF SERVICE AT THIS TIME.

    014 DCC 01/11/23 NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE_FYI 01/11/23 04:19
        HE NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE IS BEING ACTIVATED TO ADDRESS THE EQUIPMENT
        OUTAGE ISSUES...

    015 DCC 01/11/23 NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE_FYI 01/11/23 07:42
        THE NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE IS BEING ACTIVATED TO ADDRESS THE
        EQUIPMENT...

    016 DCC 01/11/23 NOTAM SYSTEM EQUIPMENT OUTAGE_FYI 01/11/23 07:44
        THE UNITED STATES NOTAM SYSTEM FAILED AT 2028Z.  TECHNICIANS ARE
        CURRENTLY WORKING TO RESTORE THE SYSTEM AND THERE IS NO ESTIMATE FOR
        RESTORATION OF SERVICE AT THIS TIME. THERE IS CURRENTLY A HOTLINE IN
        EFFECT WHICH HAS NAIMES/FAA FACILITIES/STAKEHOLDERS IN ATTENDANCE.

    020 DCC 01/11/23 NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE_FYI 01/11/23 10:58
        THE NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE IS BEING ACTIVATED...

    030 DCC 01/11/23 NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE_FYI 01/11/23 12:37
        THE NOTAM OUTAGE HOTLINE HAS BEEN TERMINATED.

In short, the terminology being used so far is "equipment failure".

[1] 1/11/2023 link to the day's messages w/ index numbering for each one per my above quotes" https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_list.jsp?WhichAdvisories=ATC...

I wanted to keep my above comment to the data only, so I'll post this here: "Equipment Failure" can cover just about anything. I think the "gut" reaction the public might have here when hearing that phrase is that it was physical equipment, but really it could have been software, network linkages, really anything. I hope the real cause here doesn't get buried somewhere in lack of follow up.

Also I really wish I'd been awake when the hotline was active (# was in the full notices linked) so I could call in and see what they were talking about as a silent observer. I can't tell from the context if that was a general status hotline, a failover service to provide the same data NOTAM would have done (though if that were the case then grounding flights wouldn't have been necessary) [1] or discussion of the actual problem and specific efforts to resolve.

[1] Well, only if it was a more benign & limited cause that wouldn't be expected to spill over into other systems. If the nature of the problem included the possibility of a malign actor then other vectors of attacks would not have been (and maybe still aren't, if that was the source) off the table.

> I wanted to keep my above comment to the data only, so I'll post this here: "Equipment Failure" can cover just about anything.

Stuxnet was after all an equipment failure. Sure, with an interesting plot to get there.

(Just commenting on the term "equipment failure", don't know anything about the FAA failure of today.)

FAA and most all global air systems and services tend to use their own nomenclature for communicating to pilots -- I would read "equipment failure" as a term that pilots would use and understand as "a temporary or permanent failure of software or hardware in the system" and not read into it any additional common sense from other areas of expertise.

The limited activity is probably because it's actually not that exciting from a technical perspective.

The answer is almost certainly something like "lack of funding forces FAA to continue using massively outdated systems and this is what happens when someone trips over the power cord of the mainframe in some basement".

It's much more interesting when companies like Google or Facebook go down, because they properly fund their infrastructure and there might be something for the HN crowd to learn.

Probably because it’s not about a package manager , a social network, Cloud Service and a chat application.

[heads-up: 'r/He\ is/I\ am' in your personal landing page]

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