|
|||||||||||
|
|
|||
By Eddy Metcalf |
||||
June 23, 2010 - Department of Transportation (DOT) issued their review of an FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) outage that occurred on November 19, 2009, delaying thousands of travelers and grounding hundreds of flights nationwide. The review was requested by the Chairmen of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Subcommittee on Aviation. The Chairmen requested that DOT identify the cause (s) of the Telecommunications Infrastructure outage, review the FAA?s corrective action plan to prevent future critical outages, examine the FAA?s ability to oversee Telecommunications Infrastructure and the contractor, and identify oversight vulnerabilities or best practices of other critical systems in the National Airspace System owned or operated by the private sector. |
||||
|
||||
DOT learned that
network configuration and procedural errors by the contractor caused
(Harris Corporation) the Telecommunications Infrastructure outage. A
Harris technician incorrectly configured an Telecommunications
Infrastructure router (which directs air traffic data, such as flight
plans, through the network) at Service restoration was delayed for 5 hours because an automatic tool that alerts technicians to network failures and their locations did not work as intended. Therefore, Harris technicians could not readily identify the source of the problem, which could have minimized the impact of the error on the NAS. FAA?s oversight of the Telecommunications Infrastructure contractor could have been more effective. The FAA was unaware that Harris officials had configured the network in error and made other procedural errors. In 2008, DOT recommended that the FAA develop improved controls over the contractor?s Telecommunications Infrastructure equipment configuration and take steps to prevent unscheduled outages and restore them on time to improve service reliability. While FAA agreed to take action, DOT found it still has problems ensuring Telecommunications Infrastructure services were restored within contractual requirements. To its credit, the FAA plans to address this and other Telecommunications Infrastructure issues, in response to the findings of an independent review panel convened to investigate the November outage. |