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With the recent escalation of military activities and regional instability in the Eastern Pacific region, the United States Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has issued a series of NOTAMs citing potential risks at all altitudes and informing pilots to be diligent about the military activities in the area and to be cautious during flight operations.
With airspaces around Mexico, Central America, and certain parts of South America experiencing military activities and potential satellite interference, this poses a significant threat to flight safety, regardless of whether the aircraft is landing, or taking off, or even simply overflying the airspace.
Multiple NOTAMs Issued By The FAA
On Friday (January 16), the US Federal Aviation Authority ( FAA), issued a series of NOTAMs, and reports from ABC News indicate that the US airlines were urged to operate cautiously when flying around the eastern Pacific Ocean area close to Mexico, Central America, and South America. The NOTAMs and the alert for caution have been issued at a time when military activities and regional instability have been on the rise, and such factors can pose considerable risks to commercial flight safety.
The NOTAMs issued indicate that the activities in these areas pose a potential risk to aircraft operating at all altitudes and all phases of flight, including cruise or overflight. While the tension has been growing for some time now, the NOTAMs have only been issued now, and reports indicate that these alerts will be valid for 60 days. The presence of military activities can pose a real threat to commercial flights, as noted by the incident from December 2025, when a JetBlue aircraft operating in the region had to halt its climb in order to prevent a collision with a US Air Force tanker aircraft also operating in the area with its transponder turned off.
The issue with such covert and off-radar operations is that neither the other pilots operating in the airspace, nor the Air Traffic Controllers might have the military aircraft visible on radar, which means the pilots of other aircraft might only be aware of a potential collision unless they have the traffic in sight. ATC radio recordings from the incident have the JetBlue pilot saying the following:
“They passed directly in our flight path. We had to stop our climb. They don’t have their transponder turned on. It’s outrageous.”
Other Risks Include Satellite Interference
Another potential risk the FAA has alerted the carriers about is the potential interference with satellite navigation systems in these airspaces. Unfortunately, such interferences are common in areas of unrest, and the number of occasions when satellite interference or spoofing was reported has been increasing in recent years.
In fact, 2024 IATA safety report, which was released last year, indicated that reports of GPS spoofing increased by 500% year-on-year, while satellite interference increased by 175%. It was stated that while there are multiple redundancies to ensure flight safety, these interference and spoofing incidents still pose a significant risk.
While satellite navigation interference could result in the complete loss of the satellite signal, leaving aircraft in a particular region blind to data from the satellite, GPS spoofing is a whole other issue, wherein false location data is sent to GPS systems, which would then relay the aircraft with false positioning data, creating an illusion on the in-flight systems with incorrect locations. In recent years, quite a lot of interference and spoofing activities have been detected in regions such as the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and certain parts of Africa.
An Analysis: Why GPS Spoofing Is An Issue
An intriguing issue facing the aviation industry.
Recent Escalation In Venezuela
With the escalation of unrest in Venezuela earlier this month, the FAA banned all US-registered aircraft from using Venezuelan airspace, which resulted in American carriers having to react and respond on short notice, resulting in operating flights using different flight paths to avoid the use of the airspace.
The FAA states that this ban on using the Venezuelan airspace is applicable to all US-registered aircraft and American carriers, and therefore, all altitudes of the Maiquetia Flight Information Region (FIR) are out of bounds. However, the FAA has exempted US state and military aircraft from this ban.
Only time will tell how the situation in Venezuela and the surrounding regions will play out. However, for the time being, airlines have essentially cancelled or scaled back their operations to and from the region until such time regular operations can be resumed safely.
