Air traffic control probe ordered as passengers hit by 'worst chaos in a decade'

29 August 2023 , 08:47

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Air traffic control probe ordered as passengers hit by 'worst chaos in a decade'

A massive air traffic control glitch which has left thousands of passengers stranded will be subject to an independent review.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper described it as the worst incident of its kind in "nearly a decade" and announced an "independent review" into the chaos, which is expected to impact travellers for days. Hundreds of flights were cancelled when a technical glitch with the UK's air traffic control system forced controllers to input flight plans manually.

National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said at 3.15pm on Monday it had "identified and remedied" the technical issue affecting its systems. But the disruption continued today with flights cancelled or delayed, and many aircraft and crews out of position.

Mr Harper told GB News: "This was a technical fault. We do not think this was a cybersecurity incident. And what will happen now with an incident of this magnitude is there will be an independent review. The Civil Aviation Authority will be putting together a report in the coming days, which obviously I will take a look at to see whether there are lessons to learn for the future, to see whether we can reduce the impact of this again.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said it was the worst disruption of its kind for nearly a decade (Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

"It's nearly a decade since there was a significant issue like this. We want to make sure it doesn't happen again, because of all the disruption that's been caused to passengers across the country." He apologised the disruption to Brits travelling on a busy Bank Holiday Monday - and said airlines must step up to look after passengers.

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At Heathrow Airport today, at least 32 departures and 31 arrivals were cancelled. British Airways, which operates the most flights to and from the west London airport, was the worst affected airline.

In a statement on Monday night, Heathrow said: "We apologise for any inconvenience as a result of the Nats technical issues today. The issue has been resolved however schedules remain significantly disrupted. If you are travelling on 29th August, please ensure you contact your airline before travelling to the airport."

By Monday afternoon, 232 flights departing UK airports had been cancelled, and 271 arriving flights were axed, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. This equates to about 8% of all expected departures and 9% of expected arrivals.

Juliet Kennedy, operations director at Nats, said the issue meant the automatic system that provides controllers with details of every aircraft and its route stopped working.

She added: "To manage safety, we had to limit the number of flights we could manage."

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Lizzy Buchan