Computer Bug Delays UK Flights..
The plans of thousands of air travellers have been thrown into chaos by a computer fault which has led to serious flight disruption.
The problem started just before 4pm when a fault occurred at one of the systems at Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre in Hampshire.
This led air traffic control company NATS to restrict the number of planes entering UK airspace as well as those taking off from major UK airports.
There were reports that all flights at Luton Airport were suspended. Flights at Heathrow Airport were also disrupted.
NATS said: “Engineers are investigating the cause of the fault and working to restore the system as soon as possible.”
The company said the restrictions on take-offs and landings were to maintain safety while controllers operated with manual systems at reduced capacity.
The company added that Scottish airspace and Manchester area airspace were working normally and that only sectors controlled from the London area control centre were affected.
There have been a series of computer problems which have affected air traffic
control on and off over recent years.The opening of the Swanwick centre was delayed for some months due to NATS needing to iron out computer problems and there have also been problems which have caused delays at London airports when systems have failed at the West Drayton centre near Heathrow.
At London’s Heathrow airport flights were taking off every five minutes, less than the airport’s usual rate. A spokeswoman said: “The operation is slowing down.”
At Stansted airport arrivals were unaffected but departures were subject to delay.
“Flights are departing but at a reduced level,” said a spokesman.
By: B77W - 25th September 2008 at 21:51
Who are you working for these days Dan?
😮
By: wannabe pilot - 25th September 2008 at 21:42
What an absolute nightmare, caused chaos in ops today. We only have 20 or so aircraft and that was a big enough problem, god knows how the big carriers sorted out so many flights! In the end we had aircraft taking ridiculous routes to avoid the London FIR….so a plane from Corsica-Dublin ended up tracking up the North sea, over Edinburgh then down again! Looks like delays are reducing at the moment, but I imgaine there will be lots of planes tomorrow sat in places that they’re not meant to be.
By: clearedtoland - 25th September 2008 at 19:33
Seems like there FDP failed just like ours did in June/July. Not nice knowing that at any time you will lose all ident on the traffic you are working especially if its busy.
Sign In
September 25, 2008 at 6:26 pm