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Computer crash grounds UK flights
By Pat Hurst, PA News
03 June 2004

The national air traffic control computer system crashed at 6am today and flights were being operated manually by air traffic controllers, British Airways said.

The systems crash hit the control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire.

The centre controls all flights in and out of London, including at Heathrow and Gatwick, and all flights were expected to be affected.

A BA spokeswoman said: "We are expecting some delays."

What? The controllers are looking out the WINDOWS?!

Most flights from UK airports have been suspended following an air traffic control computer failure, National Air Traffic Services has confirmed.
It says flights were grounded so that controllers could prioritise on planes in the air, but safety was unaffected.

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton has now reopened but most flights remain on hold.

Many airports are advising people to check in as normal, but delays are likely to continue throughout the day.

BBC transport correspondent Tom Symonds says some flights are being allowed through, but there is likely to be severe disruption.

The affected computer systems were not those that handle the separation of aircraft in the air

Flights resuming after disruption
Flights are returning to normal after an air traffic control computer failure saw planes grounded across the UK.
The West Drayton control centre is now fully operational and National Air Traffic Services says it is investigating the cause of the problem.

Nats' Flight Data Processing System failed at around 0600BST for an hour, after overnight testing of an upgrade.

Thousands of passengers have been experiencing delays as airlines work to clear the backlog of flights.

Planes had to be grounded at airports including Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Inverness.

Investigation

Nats Chief Executive Richard Everitt said flights were suspended so that controllers could prioritise on planes in the air, but that safety was unaffected.

The system which handles the separation of aircraft in the air continued working during the system failure.


What we did here was to ensure safety levels were maintained, we did that by taking the traffic right down
Richard Everitt
Nats chief executive

Mr Everitt apologised to passengers and said Nats was working with airlines to minimise disruption.

"We will now investigate why there was this problem - clearly it was not an anticipated problem - a lot of work will be done today to understand why we had problems with this testing," he said.

"What we did here was to ensure safety levels were maintained, we did that by taking the traffic right down, handling the arrivals while we sorted this problem out. "

Mr Everitt said Nats was planning on spending over a £1bn on upgrading its system over the next eight years.

'Upgrade'

Tory leader Michael Howard described the air traffic problems as "yet another example of government incompetence".

But Transport Secretary Alistair Darling pointed to "decades" of underinvestment in transport by successive governments and insisted Britain's system compared favourably with other countries.


It's typical, nobody wants to tell you anything whether it's a railway or an airport, it's the whole country
Passenger Gillian Gowar

"We are putting the money in, it is making a difference.
"If you look at the delays caused by air traffic control failure they have come down dramatically over the last few years," he said.

Mr Darling added: "It is very, very unfortunate and extremely irritating if you happen to be flying today that during the course of testing for an upgrade and improvement to the West Drayton system something went wrong and as a result you have got this disruption."

'Uptight'

Spokesman for London's Heathrow Airport Mark Pearson said: "There is serious disruption at Heathrow as a result of the air traffic control situation.

"There is an average of two hour delays on departures and restrictions on arrivals."

He advised passengers to check with their airlines before leaving home.

Easyjet says it has cancelled 40 of its flights and British Airways cancelled 17 short-haul flights - 14 flights from Heathrow, and three from Gatwick.


Former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke was one of hundreds delayed at Heathrow Airport.
He said: "My experience of flying between London and Milan has never been very happy and I just resign myself to fate that I will have to spend half a day here before I can get off the ground."

Gillian Gowar, from Derbyshire, was concerned the delays would cut into a four-day break in Rome.

She criticised what she said was a lack of communication about the disruption.


"It's typical, nobody wants to tell you anything whether it's a railway or an airport, it's the whole country."

Passengers Monica and Gerald Godfrey - waiting to fly to Toronto - earlier told BBC News Online they would have a cup of tea and relax after checking in.

"It depends on how long the delay is," Mrs Godfrey said, "we might get a little uptight."

Mr Godfrey added: "But at the end of the day there's nothing we can do about it.