US: FAA computer failure caused by personnel who damaged data file

Washington: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday informed that the computer failure that led to the halt of flight departures across the US was caused after a data file was damaged as a result of a failure to follow government procedures.

In a statement, the agency informed that unspecified “personnel” were responsible for corrupting the data file, which led to the outage of computer system that sends safety notices to pilots, Bloomberg reported.

The incident took place on Wednesday.

The computer failure triggered the agency to order a halt to departing flights across the US, causing thousands of delays and cancellations.

“The system is functioning properly and cancellations today were below 1 per cent,” FAA said.

As per the preliminary inquiry, two people working for a contractor introduced errors into the core data used on the system known as Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, a person familiar with the FAA review stated, according to the Bloomberg report.

FAA officials are now trying to find out whether the two people made the changes accidentally or intentionally, and if there was any malicious intent.

(With inputs from agencies)

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.