Updated October 2026; the outage discussed below occurred in January 2023. A NOTAM communicates operationally important information that may not be available through the usual published channels in time. A temporary runway closure, an unavailable navigation aid or an airspace restriction can change whether a planned flight is practical.
What a NOTAM tells a pilot
The FAA’s NOTAM overview describes the notices and their purpose. In current FAA usage, NOTAM means Notice to Airmen; the FAA changed the term back from Notice to Air Missions in February 2025. Older documents may therefore use the other expansion of the same acronym.
NOTAMs can address airport facilities, navigation services, hazards and restrictions. They are not a substitute for a weather briefing, charts or the applicable airport information. A forecast thunderstorm is normally assessed through weather products, rather than by expecting the NOTAM system to supply a complete weather forecast.
Why validity and context matter
A notice’s location, effective period and affected facility must be read carefully. A runway closure at one airport is not the same as the closure of the whole airport. Likewise, a notice about a particular navigation aid does not describe all available approaches. Pilots need current information for the route, destination and alternatives, interpreted alongside the rest of their preparation.
What happened on January 11, 2023
The FAA paused domestic departures during the January 11, 2023 NOTAM-system disruption. The event is historical; it is not an ongoing outage alert. In its subsequent official statement, the FAA said a preliminary review found that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while correcting synchronization between a primary and backup database. The agency reported no evidence of a cyberattack at that stage.
The lasting lesson
The incident showed how aviation depends on shared information services, as well as aircraft and airport infrastructure. For a flight today, use current official briefing resources and operational notices. A retrospective account of a 2023 disruption cannot establish the present status of the system or authorize a departure.