No Aircraft
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (mon) 2; Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 4; Flight Crew Total 210
Other / Unknown
ATC Issue All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Procedure; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
I am a FSS briefer. Our primary briefing system is routinely 'taken down' for maintenance and updates. During this time; our 'official' sources of information are internet sites. We obtain and disseminate to pilots weather and aeronautical information from internet sites; some that carry a disclaimer saying they are not for briefing purposes and that the user should call Flight Service for official information. Included in this aeronautical data are; of course; TFRs. Our official source for TFRs is the page from FAA.gov and a graphic supplied to us that is separate from our main briefing system that gets shut down. However; this graphic is dependent on the FAA TFR site; if that site is down; the graphic is incomplete and unreliable. Tonight is a 56 day update; and our system was taken down for maintenance; meaning we were to brief people off the Internet as described above. Two days ago; the FAA gave notice to [our company] that their TFR site (which again is the sole source of our TFR information when during our routine system outages) would be out of service until the weekend. This means we would be briefing pilots with no valid information source regarding TFRs. This coincidentally occurred on a night when there was a complex Presidential VIP TFR. No official direction was given to us as to where to obtain TFR information; which is required to be checked on every briefing. One quality assurance specialist suggested we simply 'take a screen shot' of the TFRs before the system went down. Of course; this would not provide valid textual information regarding the TFRs; and would be inaccurate should new TFRs be issued or existing TFRs be updated. Nor were we directed to provide a disclaimer to pilots warning TFR information could be inaccurate or incomplete. Once the system was shut down; we were still required to brief pilots on the TFRs. With no other options; many specialists used the now unreliable [company] supplemental graphic; which carried a large warning: 'Due to the FAA TFR website being OTS information contained within this graphic may be inaccurate. Refer to your [briefing system] text and graphics for the latest TFR information.' Of course; our [briefing system] text and graphics were down for maintenance...Other specialists gave pilots TFR information from [a website] as there was little other choice. [The website] carries two warnings in red; the first reading: 'Not For Navigation'; and the other reading 'The data products available here may not be complete; current; or correct.' This lapse in the system's ability to provide accurate aeronautical data regarding airspace restrictions is a huge concern for many specialists; particularly during the time frame preceding a large Presidential TFR. The lack of warning to pilots is an additional concern; as a pilot expects and deserves that FSS be able to provide them complete and accurate information when he contacts them as an official briefing source. The fact the system is routinely taken down and we are instructed to brief pilots off websites without so much as a route display and utilizing a hodge-podge of various websites to get the necessary information is disconcerting enough; but when even those websites are down; we have no source of accurate data and thus must provide unreliable data to pilot users of our system; without them knowing we are doing so. [The company] knowingly using inaccurate or incomplete data without so much as a warning to its pilot users constitutes a real danger; and is a complete failure to provide safe and accurate flight services.
Contract FSS Briefer voiced concern regarding the release/failure of equipment and the substituted procedure when FAA equipment is not available. The reporter noted unconfirmed data is used to brief pilots.