Airspace closure that grounded over 120 flights caused by 'software collapse'

Passengers at Heathrow Airport’s T3 after an air traffic control fault caused major disruption yesterday afternoon (Picture: Lily Shanagher/PA Wire)

Thousands of passengers could still be affected after the UK air traffic control (ATC) provider Nats suffered another technical glitch.

More than 120 flights were cancelled with 577,000 passengers affected yesterday. The highest number was stuck at London’s Heathrow Airport,where 29 departures were axed yesterday.

The blackout yesterday lasted a mere 20 minutes but the knock-on effects could last for days at the peak period for families to escape the UK for summer holidays.

While the cause of the radar issue has not been officially confirmed,sources have said the air control system failed because of a ‘software glitch’ with the radar.

A source told The Times the software which sends information to air traffic controllers’ screens collapsed,meaning controllers didn’t have a full picture of what was going on in the airspace.

Sign up for all of the latest stories

Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.John Carr,a chiropodist from Stourbridge,was on his way to Norway with a group of friends to help set up his brother’s wedding,for which he is best man,when he found out after checking in that his flight was cancelled.James Hedges (left) and John Carr,both from Stourbridge,whose flight was cancelled at Heathrow (Picture: Lily Shanagher/PA Wire)The 35-year-old said: ‘I’m pretty gutted. We’ve got loads of stuff in the suitcases to set up the venue,because we’re obviously flying to Norway. We’ve got the wedding rehearsal to do. It’s quite stressful.’He said they did not receive any warning of the cancellation before it happened.‘We had no idea,’ Mr Carr said.‘There was nothing that the airport had said out on the speaker phones,or anything like that. There was no warning from them or the airline that said it was cancelled. It’s rubbish. There’s nothing we can do.‘We don’t know what we’re going to do tonight in terms of accommodation.‘We have put our cars in special car compounds for the next six days.’Flights avoided English airspace during the radar blackoutyesterday afternoon (Picture: FlightRadar24)Heidi Alexander,the Transport Secretary,warned that ‘continued disruption is expected’ and urged travellers to ‘check with individual airports for advice.’She said on X: ‘Departures at all airports resumed yesterday and Nats are working closely with airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely and look after passengers.‘I will be meeting the NATS Chief Executive today to understand what happened and how we can prevent reoccurrence.’This morning,ten flights were listed as cancelled on the Heathrow departure board,while departures at Stansted and Gatwick were estimated to leave as scheduled according to Flightradar.The UK’s busiest airports told passengers to check the status of their flights with their airline.The ‘technical issue’ occurred at Nats’ control centre in Swanwick,Hampshire,according to the company.Comment nowHave you been affected? Please email [email protected] Comment NowNats (National Air Traffic Services),responsible for directing planes through British airspace,refused to rule out a cyber attack or hostile foreign interference as causing the chaos,according to The Telegraph.Bernad Lavelle,the principal consultant with BL Aviation,said the meltdown hit at the ‘worst possible timing’ as this week and next will be the busiest for holiday flights in the entire summer.He told Metro: ‘It was a 20-minute failure and we don’t know why it went down. It might be helpful if we knew that.‘But a 20-minute closure of the airspace,especially at this time of the year,which is one of the busiest weeks if not the busiest week,so the system doesn’t have much capacity to deal with delays – there is no slack in the system.’He said airlines will be working hard but struggling to get all passengers on cancelled flights to their destination.Because flights were affected due to unforeseen and exceptional circumstances,passengers will not be able to claim compensation,but airlines still have a duty of care,like providing food vouchers and accommodation for stranded people,Mr Lavelle said.But today,Thursday,the airspace was packed with planes taking off and landing (Picture: Flightradar)Mr Lavelled said he hopes Nats will confirm the cause of the glitch soon to avoid ‘speculation and rumours.’He said that airports and flight schedules appeared to have recovered well,and he doubted whether unlikely the spillover disruption would last for days.Airlines have called for the Nats chief executive,Martin Rolfe,to resign after the ‘outrageous’ incident.It first announced problems at around 4pm on Wednesday,immediately grounding all flights about to take off.In an update an hour later,the public-private partnership company said systems were fully operational and that departures had resumed.An easyJet captain stuck on the tarmac at Gatwick for an hour joked to passengers: ‘They’ve turned it off and turned it back on again.’But stranded families weren’t laughing as they feared missing funerals,weddings and once-in-a-lifetime holidays.Airlines were equally furious at the disruption after a similar 2023 failure cost carriers £100 million.EasyJet’s chief operating officer David Morgan said: ‘It’s extremely disappointing to see an ATC failure once again causing disruption to our customers at this busy and important time of year for travel.‘While our priority today is supporting our customers,we will want to understand from Nats what steps they are taking to ensure issues don’t continue.’A plane prepares ahead of taking off after radar failure led to the suspension of outbound flights across the UK,at Heathrow Airport (Picture: Reuters)Ryanair called for Nats’ chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign in the wake of the fault,claiming ‘no lessons have been learnt’ since the August 2023 system outage.The airline’s chief operating officer,Neal McMahon,said: ‘It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption due to Martin Rolfe’s continued mismanagement of Nats.‘It is clear that no lessons have been learnt since the August 2023 Nats system outage,and passengers continue to suffer as a result of Martin Rolfe’s incompetence.’More than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports on August 28 2023 when Nats suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.Mr McMahon continued: ‘If Nats CEO Martin Rolfe fails to resign on the back of this latest Nats system outage that has disrupted thousands of passengers yet again,then UK transport minister Heidi Alexander must act without delay to remove Martin Rolfe and deliver urgent reform of Nats’ shambolic ATC service,so that airlines and passengers are no longer forced to endure these preventable delays caused by persistent Nats failures.’The Department for Transport (DfT) noted that the Transport Secretary does not have any direct control over Nats and has no powers on staffing decisions.The Liberal Democrats called for a full investigation into the glitch.The party’s leader Sir Ed Davey,said: ‘It is utterly unacceptable that after a major disruption just two years ago,air traffic control has once again been hit by a technical fault.‘The Government should launch an urgent investigation to ensure the system is fit for purpose,including ruling out hostile action as a cause.’A DfT spokesperson said the department is ‘working closely’ with Nats to understand the cause of the glitch and the ‘implications for the resilience systems in place’.Nats made headlines in 2023 when a flight planning system meltdown meant flight plans had to be sorted manually,causing major delays and cancellations as only 60 flight plans could be processed per hour instead of the usual 800.This led to mayhem across airports,forcing some passengers to sleep in terminals for days.