{"id":28859274,"date":"2026-10-20T11:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/notams-explained-notice-to-airmen-icao-format-tfr\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:47:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:47:59","slug":"notams-explained-notice-to-airmen-icao-format-tfr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/notams-explained-notice-to-airmen-icao-format-tfr\/","title":{"rendered":"NOTAMs Explained: The Notices Every Pilot Must Read Before Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background 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The crew lined up instead with taxiway C, where four airliners sat waiting to take off. The A320 descended to 100 feet above the ground over the first of them and reached a minimum of about 60 feet over the second before the go-around finally took hold.<\/p>\r\n<p>The warning that could have prevented it had been in the crew's paperwork since Toronto. The parallel runway, 28L, was closed, and the line saying so, \"RWY 10R\/28L CLSD\", sat on page 8 of a 27-page flight release. It was a NOTAM.<\/p>\r\n<p>NOTAMs are the least glamorous documents in aviation and among the most important. Every pilot is expected to read the ones that touch their flight, from a light-aircraft owner hopping between grass strips to an airline captain crossing an ocean. Here is what they are, how to decode one, why safety investigators have called them garbage, and how their computer system once stopped every departure in the United States.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Stands for:<\/strong> Notice to Airmen (the FAA used \"Notice to Air Missions\" from December 2021 to February 2025)<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>What it reports:<\/strong> The abnormal status of a facility, service, procedure or hazard, not the normal status<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Key ICAO fields:<\/strong> Q) qualifier line, A) location, B) start, C) end, E) plain-language text<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Time format:<\/strong> UTC, written YYMMDDhhmm<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>TFRs:<\/strong> Issued in the United States as FDC NOTAMs<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Air Canada 759:<\/strong> Runway closure NOTAM on page 8 of a 27-page flight release<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>2023 outage:<\/strong> FAA paused all US domestic departures on 11 January 2023<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What a NOTAM Actually Is<\/h2>\r\n<p>The International Civil Aviation Organization defines a NOTAM, in the wording reproduced by the safety encyclopedia SKYbrary from ICAO Annex 11, as \"a notice containing information concerning the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard, the timely knowledge of which is essential to personnel concerned with flight operations.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>The FAA's own definition is shorter and more practical: \"a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means.\" The agency adds that a NOTAM states the abnormal status of a part of the National Airspace System, not its normal status. Charts and airport directories describe the world as it should be. NOTAMs describe what has changed.<\/p>\r\n<p>In practice that covers closed runways and taxiways, unserviceable radio navigation aids, cranes put up near an airfield, unlit obstructions, parachute jumps and air shows, military exercises that close blocks of airspace, and flights by heads of state. Each one is small. Together, at a busy airport, they can run to pages.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ydUqfhNqUIc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">A Mercury News animation reconstructs Air Canada 759's approach over the airliners waiting on taxiway C at San Francisco in July 2017.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Airmen, Air Missions, and Airmen Again<\/h2>\r\n<p>The acronym came into common use after the Chicago Convention, which founded the modern ICAO system, took effect on 4 April 1947. On 2 December 2021 the FAA changed what the letters stood for in the United States, from Notice to Airmen to Notice to Air Missions, through a change to its NOTAM order 7930.2S. AOPA reported that the FAA described it as \"the more applicable term\", and that it also covered small drones and uncrewed free balloons.<\/p>\r\n<p>Critics including Senator Ted Cruz called the change virtue signalling, according to AIN. On 10 February 2025 the FAA reversed it, with a notice reading: \"Effective immediately, the term Notice to Air Missions (Notam) is being changed to Notice to Airmen (Notam).\" ICAO had kept \"Notice to Airmen\" throughout, and the four letters pilots actually type never changed at all.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Anatomy of an ICAO NOTAM<\/h2>\r\n<p>The clearest way to learn the format is the FAA's own worked example: runway 04L\/22R closed at Chicago O'Hare on 23 June 2021. The first line, B0667\/21 NOTAMN, gives the series (B covers aerodrome maneuvering areas such as runways and taxiways), the number and year, and the action. N means new; R replaces an earlier NOTAM and C cancels one.<\/p>\r\n<p>Then comes the Q line, which the FAA describes as coded information, coordinates and radius \"for the automated filtering of NOTAMs\". KZAU is the flight information region, here the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center. QMRLC is the NOTAM code: always a Q, then MR for runway and LC for closed. IV means it affects both instrument and visual flights, NBO flags it for immediate attention, pre-flight briefing and flight operations, A sets the scope as an aerodrome, and 000\/999 are the default height limits used for airport NOTAMs. The last group, 4159N08754W005, places the centre at 41\u00b059'N 087\u00b054'W with a five-nautical-mile radius of influence.<\/p>\r\n<p>After that the lettered items read almost like plain English. A) KORD is the airport. B) and C) are the start and end times in UTC, written year, month, day, hour, minute, so 2106231700 means 23 June 2021 at 1700Z. E) RWY 04L\/22R CLSD is the message itself. Optional D) gives a schedule, while F) and G) set lower and upper limits for airspace NOTAMs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/notams-explained-icao-notam-format-decoded-q-line.png\" alt=\"Decoded ICAO-format NOTAM showing the FAA example for runway 04L\/22R closed at Chicago O'Hare, with every field of the Q line explained\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Every field of an ICAO-format NOTAM, decoded using the FAA's own Chicago O'Hare example. The Q line exists so computers can filter NOTAMs by place, subject and type of flight. Graphic: Afterburner, based on the FAA ICAO NOTAM Format Example and FAA Order JO 7930.2 Appendix B<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<p>The same closure in the FAA's US domestic format is a single line: !ORD 06\/001 ORD RWY 04L\/22R CLSD 2106231700-2106232300. The FAA says it is working to make US NOTAMs comply with ICAO standards, which is why American pilots increasingly meet both styles. Either way, as the FAA puts it, \"NOTAMs have a unique language using special contractions to make communication more efficient.\"<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">TFRs, Military Airspace and Closed Skies<\/h2>\r\n<p>Some NOTAMs are not just information but law. In the United States, Temporary Flight Restrictions are issued as FDC NOTAMs, the regulatory category that also covers changes to instrument approaches and airways. TFRs, airway changes and laser activity are filed as Center Area NOTAMs under the air route traffic control center that owns the airspace, so a pilot searching only under the destination airport can miss them.<\/p>\r\n<p>Miss a TFR and the consequence can arrive with afterburners. Afterburner has covered a run of NORAD intercepts in which <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-16-fighting-falcon\/\">F-16<\/a> fighters met light aircraft that had strayed into restricted airspace, from <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/f-16-intercept-civilian-plane-maryland-tfr-2026\/\">Maryland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/norad-f-16-intercept-bedminster-trump-tfr-2026\/\">Bedminster<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/norad-chicago-intercepts-f-16-flares-tfr-presidents-cup-2026\/\">Chicago<\/a>, where F-16s fired flares at aircraft during a presidential visit.<\/p>\r\n<p>Military airfields publish NOTAMs too, and they read like orders of the day. On the morning of the 2023 outage, the FAA's public search for <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-bases\/nellis\/\">Nellis Air Force Base<\/a> in Nevada listed exercise aircraft that had to arrange prior permission, limited transient support, obstruction lights out of service, and a blunt line stating the base was for official business only.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/notams-explained-faa-notam-outage-11-january-2023-nellis.png\" alt=\"FAA NOTAM search page on 11 January 2023 showing military NOTAMs for Nellis Air Force Base and a banner warning that NOTAM processing is impaired\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The FAA's public NOTAM search at 16:31 UTC on 11 January 2023, listing military NOTAMs for Nellis Air Force Base. The banner at the top reads \"NOTAM processing is impaired and newly processed NOTAMs are not being displayed\". Photo: Federal Aviation Administration \/ public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Morning the NOTAM System Stopped America<\/h2>\r\n<p>That banner was the visible tip of a national problem. The US NOTAM system began failing on 10 January 2023. By the next morning the FAA had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time \"to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.\" Flights already airborne continued.<\/p>\r\n<p>Departures resumed at Newark and Atlanta first, and by 8:50 a.m. Eastern the FAA announced the ground stop had been lifted. By noon, FlightAware had counted about 6,988 delayed flights and more than 1,100 cancellations, NPR reported. The pause was widely described as the first nationwide ground stop since 11 September 2001, although NPR noted that claim was unconfirmed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"max-width:550px;margin:0 auto 28px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1613172396571201536&theme=light\" style=\"width:100%;height:400px;border:none;overflow:hidden\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>That evening the FAA said its preliminary work had traced the outage \"to a damaged database file\" and that there was no evidence of a cyber attack. The fuller explanation came eight days later.<\/p>\r\n<p>There was still no sign of a cyber attack. The cause, the FAA said on 19 January, was a maintenance job that went wrong while contractors tried to keep two copies of the database in step.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;A preliminary FAA review of last week&rsquo;s outage of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system determined that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Federal Aviation Administration<\/strong> &mdash; FAA statement, 19 January 2023<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>The FAA has since built a replacement. Its new NOTAM Management Service, a cloud-hosted system, began operations at the end of September 2025, and the agency set late spring 2026 as its target for moving to a single-source NOTAM service.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Air Canada 759 and the &ldquo;Garbage&rdquo; Problem<\/h2>\r\n<p>Back in San Francisco, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the probable cause of the 2017 incident was the crew's misidentification of taxiway C as the landing runway, resulting from their lack of awareness that the parallel runway was closed \"due to their ineffective review of NOTAM information before the flight and during the approach briefing.\" Air Canada's ineffective presentation of approach procedure and NOTAM information was a contributing factor.<\/p>\r\n<p>The NTSB looked hard at how that information reached the cockpit. The closure NOTAM sat on page 8 of the 27-page release, in the middle of the package, despite bold type and a red NEW tag. The investigators cited the serial position effect: people remember the first and last items in a list better than the middle ones.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/notams-explained-ntsb-air-canada-759-sfo-taxiway-c.jpg\" alt=\"NTSB graphic of San Francisco International Airport showing Air Canada 759 lined up with taxiway C over waiting airliners, with closed runway 28L marked\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">NTSB graphic built from radar data: Air Canada 759 (right) lined up with taxiway C, where four airliners were waiting, instead of runway 28R. The X marks closed runway 28L, the closure buried in the NOTAMs. Below, the night camera view. Image: National Transportation Safety Board \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<p>The airport information that arrived by datalink before landing was no better. The ATIS message, as displayed in the cockpit, was 14 continuous lines in capital letters, with the runway closure split across the end of line 8 and the start of line 9.<\/p>\r\n<p>At the NTSB board meeting in September 2018, chairman Robert Sumwalt read out a verbose NOTAM restricting part of a taxiway to aircraft with a wingspan of 214 feet or less, and asked, as AIN reported: \"Why is this even on there?\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;That's what Notams are: they're a bunch of garbage that no one pays any attention to.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Robert Sumwalt<\/strong> &mdash; NTSB Chairman, board meeting on Air Canada 759, September 2018, as reported by AIN<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg went further in a concurring statement. He wrote: \"Concerns about legal liability rather than operational necessity, drive the current system to list every possible Notice to Airmen (Notam) that could, even under the most unlikely circumstance, affect a flight.\" The result, in his words, is \"an impossibly heavy burden on individual pilots, crews and dispatchers.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>The NTSB recommended that the FAA set up a group of human factors experts to work out how flight information should be organised, prioritised and presented so pilots actually retain what matters. ICAO has since run its own campaign to clean up the NOTAM flood.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LWLPDOXF7e4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">OpsGroup's clip of the NTSB board meeting in which Robert Sumwalt dismissed the NOTAM system after the Air Canada 759 investigation.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">How Pilots Read NOTAMs Today<\/h2>\r\n<p>Most crews no longer wade through raw teleprinter text. Flight-planning software and electronic flight bags filter and sort NOTAMs by route and airport, which is exactly what the Q line was designed to make possible. The FAA still reminds pilots to check 25 nautical miles either side of their full route so that relevant navigation-aid NOTAMs show up.<\/p>\r\n<p>The principle is as old as the system itself: if it is in a NOTAM, the pilot is expected to know it. Air Canada 759 proved how close the gap between published and noticed can come to a catastrophe. About sixty feet, in fact.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Sources: NTSB Aircraft Incident Report AIR-18\/01 (Air Canada 759), FAA (What is a NOTAM?, ICAO NOTAM Format Example, Order JO 7930.2 Appendix B, NOTAM statements of 11 and 19 January 2023), AIN, AOPA, NPR, SKYbrary, Wikipedia (NOTAM, 2023 FAA system outage)<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What does NOTAM stand for?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">NOTAM stands for Notice to Airmen, the term used by ICAO. The FAA changed the US meaning to Notice to Air Missions on 2 December 2021, then reverted to Notice to Airmen on 10 February 2025. A NOTAM reports a temporary or abnormal change, such as a closed runway or a broken navigation aid, that pilots need to know before flight.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What information does a NOTAM contain?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">A NOTAM reports the establishment, condition or change of an aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard. The FAA says it states the abnormal status of the National Airspace System, not the normal status. Typical NOTAMs cover closed runways and taxiways, unserviceable navigation aids, cranes near airfields, military exercises, parachute jumps and VIP flights.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How do you read an ICAO-format NOTAM?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">An ICAO-format NOTAM starts with series, number and action, such as B0667\/21 NOTAMN. The Q line holds coded data for computer filtering: flight information region, NOTAM code, traffic, purpose, scope, height limits, and coordinates with a radius. Item A gives the location, B and C the start and end times in UTC, and E the plain-language text.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is the Q line in a NOTAM?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Q line in a NOTAM is a qualifier line of coded information used to filter NOTAMs automatically. In the FAA example KZAU\/QMRLC\/IV\/NBO\/A\/000\/999\/4159N08754W005, KZAU is the Chicago flight information region, QMRLC means runway closed, IV covers IFR and VFR flights, and the final group gives the centre point and a five-nautical-mile radius.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Is a TFR a NOTAM?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. In the United States, Temporary Flight Restrictions are issued as FDC NOTAMs, the regulatory category of NOTAM. TFRs are filed as Center Area NOTAMs under the air route traffic control center that controls the airspace. Pilots who fly into a TFR around a presidential visit can be intercepted by NORAD fighters such as the F-16.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What caused the FAA NOTAM outage on 11 January 2023?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The FAA NOTAM outage of January 2023 was caused by a maintenance error. The FAA said on 19 January 2023 that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while correcting synchronization between the live primary database and a backup. The FAA paused all US domestic departures on the morning of 11 January and found no evidence of a cyber attack.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What role did NOTAMs play in the Air Canada 759 incident?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">In the Air Canada 759 incident at San Francisco on 7 July 2017, the runway 28L closure NOTAM sat on page 8 of a 27-page flight release. The NTSB found the crew's ineffective review of NOTAM information led them to line up with taxiway C, where four airliners waited. The A320 descended to about 60 feet before climbing away.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What does NOTAM stand for?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"NOTAM stands for Notice to Airmen, the term used by ICAO. The FAA changed the US meaning to Notice to Air Missions on 2 December 2021, then reverted to Notice to Airmen on 10 February 2025. 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The A320 descended to about 60 feet before climbing away.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/ground-stop-vs-ground-delay-program-faa-edct-explained\/\">Ground Stop vs Ground Delay Program: What Happens When the FAA Hits Pause<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/norad-chicago-intercepts-f-16-flares-tfr-presidents-cup-2026\/\">NORAD Chicago Intercepts: F-16s Flare Planes During Trump Visit<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/f-16-intercept-civilian-plane-maryland-tfr-2026\/\">Wrong Airspace Over Maryland, Meet an F-16<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/nats-outage-uk-flights-cancelled-september-2026\/\">NATS Outage: 2,000 UK Flights Cancelled, and a One-Week Deadline<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NOTAMs explained: what a Notice to Airmen is, how to decode the ICAO Q line, how TFRs work, the 2023 FAA outage and the Air Canada 759 near-miss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":28859253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28859274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NOTAMs Explained: What Pilots Must Read | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NOTAMs explained: what a Notice to Airmen is, how to decode the ICAO Q line, how TFRs work, the 2023 FAA outage and the Air Canada 759 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