UK Air Traffic control glitch triggers travel chaos, Will there be more delays and diversions?
travel chaos ensues as the United Kingdom's air traffic control systems grapple with a «technical fault» that surfaced on Monday morning, leading to a cascade of delays and cancellations across the nation. The situation was reportedly «identified and remedied» around 3:30 p.m.
on Monday, yet the repercussions persist, leaving thousands of travelers stranded.
The glitch, which affected the flight planning system managed by the National Air Traffic Controllers (NATS), necessitated manual input of flight plans due to the system's incapacity for automatic processing. This shift in procedure inevitably slowed traffic flow, resulting in enforced traffic flow restrictions.
A spokesperson from NATS revealed that the organization is collaborating closely with airlines and airports to manage the impact on flights, while engineers are vigilantly overseeing the system's performance.
Though NATS initially indicated that the UK's airspace remained «not closed,» the implementation of traffic flow restrictions meant that aircraft take-offs and landings were curtailed, triggering a domino effect of delays and diversions. Travel journalist Simon Calder explained that numerous flights were either held on tarmacs or rerouted to destinations like Ireland and mainland Europe, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers, particularly on the busy August bank holiday.
Aviation analysts predict that the disruption's aftershocks might reverberate well into the week, with planes out of position and a backlog of passengers requiring reaccommodation.
National Air Traffic Services operations director Juliet Kennedy emphasized that a return to normalcy would be gradual and protracted.
Various airports reacted to the situation differently. Heathrow
