Air traffic control crawls back to normal service
The National Air Traffic Control System is said to be “back to normal” after a computer error caused nationwide flight delays earlier today.
The failure, at about 6am, was at the West Drayton centre in west London. After initial delays of up to two hours, most UK airports are now operating a normal service. Stansted and Birmingham airports were the worst affected airports, with flights operating at 70% of normal capacity.
Richard Everitt, the chief executive of the service, has said an investigation will be launched into what had gone wrong. Mr Everitt told news agency Annanova: “We had a problem with our flight data processing computer in West Drayton at just after 6am this morning, and that was sorted out within about 20 minutes, but there was a period obviously where we had to make sure all the data was correct, safety being the paramount consideration.
“So we gradually brought the capacity back up. We were back up to 70% by 8 o’clock this morning, and I am pleased to say we are now at 100%.”
See our previous stories:
19-Feb-2002 NATS denies financial crisis reports
28-Jan-2002 Swanwick air control centre opens for business
3-Apr-2001 UK NATS decision to benefit travelling public
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