KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lawmakers are pressing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for information regarding the recent outages with its hazard notification system. U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) joined other senators and U.S. representatives in pressing the FAA for information regarding t he recent Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system outages – and the status of past-due upgrades to the system. Family from Spain, pilot killed in NYC sightseeing helicopter crash Moran is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation. The lawmakers wrote the following letter, in part, to the FAA: "We write to you to request information on the recent temporary outages of the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system as well as an update on efforts to modernize the system. Pilots rely on the NOTAM system to remain aware of safety hazards on flight routes. This system is critical to the safety of the nearly 3 million passengers who fly over the U.S. every day." You can read the full letter here. The 2023 NOTAM Improvement Act requires the FAA to establish a task force to strengthen the resiliency and cybersecurity of the NOTAM system, which alerts pilots of safety and location hazards on flight routes. The law required the FAA to upgrade the NOTAM system and create a backup system by September 2024. While the backup system was put in place in July 2024, the required upgrade of the primary system has not yet been completed. Lawmakers said in the letter that the primary NOTAM system experienced outages for several hours on Feb. 1 and March 22. Plane crash near Florida highway kills 3 on board, injures 1 on the ground "While we are pleased that the backup system is in place as of July 2024 and was successfully activated during that outage, we are concerned about the past due implementation of a modernized NOTAM system, as required by law," they said in the letter. Lawmakers have requested the following information from the FAA: What caused the recent NOTAM outages? What steps is the FAA taking to mitigate future outages? How quickly was the backup system activated during the outages? How effective was the backup system, including its performance in comparison to the primary system? Please provide an update on the FAA’s implementation of the NOTAM Improvement Act, particularly the status of efforts to implement an upgraded NOTAM system. "Travelers deserve flights that are safe and on time," the letter reads. "We urge you to ensure that a modernized NOTAM system is implemented in a timely manner." Here’s a look at recent aircraft tragedies, mishaps and close calls Just this week, a Spanish family and pilot were killed in a helicopter crash in New York City. On Friday, a small plane crashed near a Florida highway, killing three people. ...read more read less