NOTAM
A NOTAM is a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight. NOTAMs are notices or advisories that contain information concerning the establishment, conditions or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard, the timely knowledge of which may be essential to personnel and systems concerned with flight operations.
NOTAMs are created and transmitted by government agencies and airport operators under guidelines specified by Annex 15: Aeronautical Information Services of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. A NOTAM is filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of any hazards en route or at a specific location, or Flight Information Region. The authority, in turn, provides a means of disseminating relevant NOTAMs to pilots.
History
The acronym NOTAM came into common use following the ratification of the CICA, which went into effect on 4 April 1947, although early recorded use of the "Notice to Airmen" heading can be found in Flight International magazine in the UK. Notices to airmen were normally published in a regular publication by each country's air authorities, as in the UK.Several developments and amendments to the CICA have resulted in the more automated system available today. At some point in the past, the NOTAM system became web-aware.
In July 2017, Air Canada Flight 759 nearly crashed into four other airliners as it attempted to land on a San Francisco taxiway misidentified as a runway: the adjacent runway was closed, but the information was buried in the NOTAM. In September 2018, as a consequence of the findings of its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board stated NOTAMs were unintelligible and ignored. The NTSB recommended more effective presentation of relevant information. NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt described NOTAMs as "a bunch of garbage that nobody pays any attention to". This led to an initiative of the International Civil Aviation Organization to reform the NOTAM system.
In early 2014, Russia occupied Crimea and as part of the takeover, Russia issued a new code, URFV to cover the Crimean airspace. The Ukrainian air controller has since been forced to issue NOTAMs under the UKFV code, basically a verbatim repeater. As a result, all the UKFV NOTAMs advising about this area affix this note:
DUE ACTIVITY PUBLISHED BY RUSSIAN FEDERATION.
THE PUBLICATION BY RUSSIAN FEDERATION OF INFORMATION
RELATED TO AIRSPACE UNDER RESPONSIBILITY OF UKRAINE
DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE ICAO
AIR NAVIGATION PLAN - EUROPEAN REGION
AND THE ICAO ANNEXES 11 AND 15.
In the run-up to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities closed large parts of the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, and almost the entire Sea of Azov "for missile and artillery live fire exercises." A spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry protested the Russian NOTAMs over this unprecedentedly large exercise area, which essentially obstructed international shipping and had economic consequences for Ukrainian ports such as Mariupol.
Usage
NOTAMs are issued for several reasons, such as:- hazards, including air shows, parachute jumps, kite flying, lasers, rocket launches, etc.
- flights by important people such as heads of state
- closed runways
- inoperable radio navigational aids
- military exercises with resulting airspace restrictions
- inoperable lights on tall obstructions
- temporary erection of obstacles near airfields
- passage of flocks of birds through airspace
- notifications of runway/taxiway/apron status concerning snow, ice, and standing water
- notification of an operationally significant change in volcanic ash or other dust contamination
- software code risk announcements with associated patches to reduce specific vulnerabilities
Software allows pilots to identify NOTAMs near their intended route or at the intended destination. Some complain that the volume and increasing triviality of NOTAMs has reduced their usefulness.
In the U.S. Air Force information technology enterprise, C4 NOTAMs are notices of new or updated Air Force Network Operating Instructions. Often, these notices serve to direct Air Force computer administrators to install security updates or change the configuration of computer systems.
Flight planning applications for electronic flight bag can help decipher and better organize NOTAMs.
Format
The following describes ICAO NOTAMs. NOTAMs are published using all upper case letters. Some countries, such as the United States, may diverge from the following ICAO standards.- The first line contains NOTAM identification, the type of operation, as well as a reference to a previously issued NOTAM.
- The "Q" line holds information about whom the NOTAM affects, along with a basic NOTAM description. This line can be encoded/decoded from tables defined by ICAO. This allows NOTAMs to be displayed electronically.
- The "A" line is the ICAO code of the affected aerodrome or FIR for the NOTAM. The area of influence of the NOTAM can be several hundred kilometers from the originating aerodrome.
- The "B" line contains the start date and time, and the "C" line contains the finish date and time of the NOTAM. Fields "B" and "C" are in the format YYMMDDhhmm, with times given in Universal Co-ordinated Time, also known as UTC or Zulu time.
- Sometimes a "D" line may be present. This gives a miscellaneous diurnal time for the NOTAM if the hours of effect are less than 24 hours a day, e.g., parachute dropping exercises tend to occur for short periods of a few hours during the day, but may be repeated over many days.
- The "E" line is the full NOTAM description. It is in English but can be heavily abbreviated. These abbreviations can be encoded/decoded by tables defined by ICAO.
- When present, "F" and "G" lines detail the height/altitude restrictions of the NOTAM. Typically SFC means surface height or ground level, and UNL is unlimited height. Other heights are given in feet, flight level, or a combination of the two.
Example
A1234/06 NOTAMR A1212/06
Q) EGTT/QMXLC/IV/NBO/A/000/999/5129N00028W005
A) EGLL
B) 0609050500
C) 0704300500
E) DUE WIP TWY B SOUTH CLSD BTN 'F' AND 'R'. TWY 'R' CLSD BTN 'A' AND 'B' AND DIVERTED VIA NEW GREEN CL AND BLUE EDGE LGT. CTN ADZ
This decodes into the following:
U.S. domestic NOTAMs
In the United States, NOTAMs are classified by the FAA into five categories:;NOTAM or distant NOTAMs
;Flight Data Center NOTAMs
;Pointer NOTAMs
;Special activity airspace NOTAMs
;Military NOTAMs
Format
From left to right, U.S. NOTAMs contain the following elements:- An exclamation point
- Accountability Location
- Affected Location
- One of the following keywords
| Keyword | Meaning |
| RWY | Runway |
| TWY | Taxiway |
| RAMP | Terminal ramp |
| APRON | Airport apron |
| AD | Aerodrome/Airport |
| OBST | Obstruction |
| NAV | Anything relating to navigational equipment, e.g. VOR or NDB being out of service. |
| COM | Any other communications, e.g. ATIS. |
| SVC | When tower, fuel, customs service hours are available. |
| AIRSPACE | The airspace surrounding the affect location. |
| U | Other aeronautical information, but unverified. |
| O | Other aeronautical information. |
- Surface Identification
- Condition
- Time
Examples
Tok Junction Airport has an unverified vehicle that is abandoned on its runway.Los Angeles International's VOR is out of service.
There is an airshow being held at Oshkosh airport with aircraft flying 5,000 feet and below within a 5 nautical mile radius. Avoidance is advised from 2000 UTC on July 15, 2007, until 2200 on July 15, 2007.