On Wednesday, July 30, more than 150 flights were canceled after a 20 -minute air traffic failure of a grounded aircraft and suspended take -offs throughout the UK.
Thousands of passengers faced disruption to – or in attempts to achieve – British airports, when a defect for air traffic control led to delay and cancellation of more than 100 flights.
According to Bloomberg, movements in Heathrow, the largest UK airports and the busiest in Europe were hit. London Gatwick Airport said “There are currently no deviations from London Gatwick while the situation is resolved.” Smaller city airports also faced disturbances.
Here’s what happened exactly and what was a defect that led to chaos at the UK airports:
What led to chaos at the UK airports?
The “technical problem” at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) center in South England temporarily suspended flights at key airports in the UK, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
The temporary outage in NATS lasted only 20 minutes, but caused great disruption and hours of chaos at the UK airports.
NATS spokesman shared details about the potential cause of Wednesday’s disturbance of air traffic.
They said it was a radar -related problem that was resolved by a quick transition to the backup system. During this time, the spokesman says they have reduced traffic to ensure safety. “There is no evidence that this is related to cyber connection,” they added.
How many flights have been delayed, canceled?
From 19:30 BST on Wednesday (12:00 in the morning on Thursday), 67 departures and 55 arrivals were canceled at all British airports, the BBC reported.
And around 22:00 BST (2:30 ist) was reportedly canceled more than 150 flights to the United Kingdom.
Up to 84 outgoing flights and 71 supplements were abolished throughout the UK. So far, London Heathrow has seen the highest number of abolitions – 29 departures and 17 arrivals, according to Aviation Analytics Cirium.
What is going on now?
NATS, a leading air control provider with air transport in the UK, said that its systems are again fully functional and the capacity of air traffic is returning to normal – but after the outage there was an uncorded flight with many delayed, independent.
“It was a radar -related problem that was resolved by a quick transition to a backup system during which we reduced the operation to ensure safety,” Nats said, adding that “there was no evidence that it was related to cyber connection”.
The grass secretary of British transport, Heidi Alexander, said that passengers should check the advice at each airport.
What is the National Air Transport Service?
National air traffic services are the main provider of air traffic control services at the UK airports. One of his main roles is the operational control center for air space management in the UK.
According to its website, NATS in a typical year processes more than 2.5 million flights and 250 million passengers.
(Tagstotranslate) flights canceled
