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Friday, December 12, 2014

Computer failure at air traffic control headquarters in England Friday Dec 12,2014

 Thousands of passengers have been thrown into travel chaos after flights were disrupted following a computer failure at a major air traffic control centre. At Heathrow (pictured) 70 flights were cancelled
Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled on Friday Dec 12,2014 after a computer failure at air traffic control headquarters in England closed airspace and left passengers facing chaos.
Airport
Crowds gathered around the flight information boards as they waited for their delayed flights to be rescheduled 
Passengers were delayed for up to three hours at London City airport even once the glitch was fixed 
The problem sparked delays and cancellations at a number of airports Pictured: Passengers at Gatwick wait for news about their delayed flights 
Reported problems around the country included:
  • Heathrow: Eighty-four out of about 1,300 flights cancelled but services gradually returning to normal
  • Gatwick: Flights now resumed with delays of up to an hour-and-a-half after 19 earlier cancellations
  • Stansted: Departures and arrivals experiencing some delays
  • London City: Cancellations and delays
  • Newcastle: All of Friday's departures have left after some delays
  • Luton: Passengers told to expect "residual delays"
  • Bristol: Delays reported but no cancellations
  • Edinburgh: Experiencing some delays
  • Glasgow: Some delays to arrivals and departures
  • Southampton: All flights have now departed and landed after some delays
  • Leeds Bradford: Flights now operational after earlier suspension
  • Birmingham: Some departures are being re-routed to avoid flying through London airspace, causing some delays
  • East Midlands: Departures and arrivals were delayed
  • Manchester: Some delays of around an hour but no problems expected on Saturday

For a time no aircraft were able to take off and landings were delayed at some of the UK's major airports.
The incident sparked travel chaos, mainly at Heathrow (pictured) which transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said was 'simply unacceptable'

All London airports were affected with some 100,000 passengers left frustrated at Heathrow alone where 70 flights were cancelled. 
Cancellations and delays were the order of the day across all five London airports, including City Airport

The chaos followed a computer failure at the £623million air traffic control computer centre in the Hampshire village of Swanwick.
The state-of-the art air traffic control centre at Swanwick in Hampshire has been endured a chequered history 
This is not the first time that problems have struck the £623 million National Air Traffic Services (NATS) centre, pictured above
Frustrated passengers queue in the luggage hall at Heathrow's Terminal 5, where those arriving at the airport were told that they would have to go home without their bags 
A glitch lasting from 3.27pm to 4.03pm affected a main flight data computer server at the headquarters of air traffic control company Nats. 
Queues of passengers waited for further information as to whether they would be able to catch their flight

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: 'Disruption on this scale is simply unacceptable and I have asked Nats for a full explanation of this incident. 
A notice was put up in City airport informing passengers that departures from London had been stopped 
At 7pm, NATS said there was a 'thorough investigation continuing' which would identify the root cause 
'I also want to know what steps will be taken to prevent this happening again. Any disruption to our aviation system is a matter of the utmost concern, especially at this time of year in the run up to the holiday season.' 



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