Pilots, is it time to change the sexist NOTAM to something else?

The Flight Detective
two people in a cockpit

The aviation industry is quite good at keeping terms non-gender specific. For example, steward and stewardess have become flight attendant or cabin crew, which applies to both sexes. Not so much with NOTAM though.

NOTAM is an abbreviation of “Notice to Airmen”, a communication which is issued to pilots. It is specifically issued to air “men”, which presumably means female pilots can ignore them.

What Is A NOTAM?

The International Civil Aviation Organization, more commonly known as ICAO, defines the term like this. “A notice to airmen (NOTAM) is 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.”

Common notices would include letting pilots know about closed runways at an airport or inoperable navigation aids for example. Other notifications include those about hazards in the area of flight, such as air shows, rocket launches or things like that.

Alternatives to NOTAM

To include the lady pilots, perhaps the Notice to Airmen should be a Notice to Aircrew, a NOTAC. Another possibility could be Notice to Pilots, but NOTP doesn’t really roll off the tongue in conversation very well.

How about Notice to Air Persons, a NOTAP? It might be nice to avoid an acronym altogether and just call them Pilot Notices. Either way, it isn’t an insurmountable challenge to change it… you wouldn’t think!

Overall Thoughts

Certain things in aviation change at a slow pace, so I would not be surprised to see NOTAM around for a long time. That being said, in our 21st century world of woke culture and awareness, perhaps this archaic little gem should be retired and replaced.

What do you think of NOTAM? Keep it or ditch it? Any ideas for a replacement? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Pattharapong Sittirach via Wikimedia Commons.
Notice to Airmen by Bernard Bill5 via Wikimedia Commons.
Turkey by the FAA via Wikimedia Commons.

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Glenn

When someone Googles the term “First World Problems”, this should be the first thing that pops up.

Ryan

“man” does not exclude female pilots. “Man” in English also refers to humans, humankind, in general – from “mann” in Proto-Germanic. In Old English “wermann” was for males and “wifmann” for females. At some point the “wer” was dropped from “wermann” for males but this doesn’t change the meaning of “man (mann)” Stop looking for things to be offended about, there are actual problems to worry about.

Last edited 3 years ago by Ryan
121pilot

Right when I thought political correctness couldn’t go any further…I continue to be amazed. This is ridiculous, especially when there are actual issues to tackle in aviation.

Robin

You are wrong in many aspects. Some were already pointed out. But the biggest thing is how you use words. Start using them as a tool and not have them influence your perception.
The fact alone that you wrote all this, show to me that you have nothing better to do than to bend words and perceptions and make it look like everyone uses these words in the way you critique it.
Give me a break. Why would you think that women cant be airmen? Thats rather sexist of you tbh.

747always

Im all for equality of the sexes, but at some point this whole woke thing goes more than a bit nuts.
Theres always something to be offended about in todays world.

Tom

Oh, I hope the virus kills us all. If we don’t have any problems we make up stupid stuff like this. It comes from historic times and I am sure that a normal person doesn’t really care that it says man in it. Remember no woman/women are possible without man/men. Therefore, we have to kill all genders completely. I am so surprised that nobody cared yet to rename “woman” or “women” It’s the best example that this whole ordeal is stupid. All these people who want to change something, think about climate change, help poor and starving kids in third-world… Read more »

Bill G

Well, how about unmanned aircraft? Or man the controls?

747always

LOL. Youre really going to get something rolling here.

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