The FAA confirms there’s a contingency system in place.

So far 22 vendors have submitted proposals to the agency.

The task force will provide recommendations for updating the safety critical Notice to Air Mission system.

If approved by Congress, the agency will use the sum to retire aging databases and applications and switch to a more modern NOTAM system.

The system will form a key part of the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System.

Billy Nolen tells lawmakers that his agency does not expect a repeat of errors that caused a system outage last month.

An agency spokesperson confirms it has suspended access to buildings and systems for certain staff working for federal contractor Spatial Front.

The sub-agency says files were erased during work to correct synchronization between the system’s live primary database and a backup database.

If the diagnosis is correct, this will be the latest example of a major federal IT system outage caused by a corrupted database file.