U.K. ATC disruption attributed to identified technical issue by Transport Secretary
The UK experienced a brief disruption in its air traffic control system last week, causing over 150 flights to be cancelled or delayed. The technical issue at NATS' Swanwick control centre was promptly resolved by switching to a backup system, according to reports.
The glitch, which lasted approximately 20 minutes, was described as "short and sweet" by Graham Lake, a former director general of the air traffic management industry association Canso. Heidi Alexander, the UK Transport Secretary, also labelled the incident as an "isolated event."
However, the disruption particularly affected operations at Heathrow Airport, where 84 departures and 71 arrivals were cancelled. Some flights were diverted to other European cities due to the disruption.
The technical failure was radar-related, and Heidi Alexander spoke with NATS CEO Martin Rolfe for further details on the technical fault. There is no evidence of malign activity related to the technical fault.
Despite the quick recovery, the incident marks the second technical failure at NATS' Swanwick control centre in two years. Ryanair has called for the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, citing a lack of learned lessons from previous outages.
The new CEO of NATS, Martin Rolfe, has faced calls for removal from Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary due to issues at the UK's National Air Traffic Service (NATS).
In a positive note, systems were fully operational at NATS within an hour following the stoppage. Heidi Alexander expressed gratitude to airlines for their efforts to get passengers to their destinations. However, the exact number of passengers affected by the disruption is not specified in the text.
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