Hundreds of flights cancelled as ‘dodgy French flight plan’ blamed for air traffic chaos – latest
Travel chaos continues for second day after air traffic control failure caused worst day for UK flying since Iceland volcano
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Flights risk ‘diversion’ amid UK air traffic system failure, Simon Calder says
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A dodgy flight plan filed by a French airline may have sparked the major UK air traffic control systems meltdown, sources have told The Independent – as No 10 said it was not ruling that possibility out.
Hundreds of flights to and from UK airports have already been cancelled again on Tuesday, as airlines struggle to recover from the hours-long failure of the National Air Traffic Services system on bank holiday Monday, blamed on a technical fault.
Around 200,000 people are starting the day where they did not wish to be – with many expecting to be stranded for several days.
Already on Tuesday nearly 300 flights have been cancelled at the UK’s six busiest airports alone. Most are short-haul departures from London Heathrow, including Athens, Ibiza and Pisa. But transatlantic flights are also affected, with the Heathrow-Nashville and Gatwick-Tampa cancelled.
After “remedying” the issue on Monday, National Air Traffic Services warned the ensuing disruption could last further into the week, adding that the failure would be investigated “very thoroughly”.
Have you been affected by delays? If so email andy.gregory@independent.co.uk
Caught in the air traffic control nightmare? Your rights when flights go wrong
Hundreds of thousands of passengers booked to travel to or from the UK have had their flights cancelled or delayed after the air-traffic control system was hit by a technical issue.
Here, The Independent’s travel expert Simon Calder explains what you can do if you are caught up in the chaos:
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 15:39
Airlines have responsibility to get customers home, Downing Street says
Downing Street has warned that airlines have a responsibility to “get customers back to where they should be”, as thousands of holidaymakers remain stranded.
This could include replacement transport, meals and accommodation until their flight finally takes off, No 10 said.
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 15:29
Passenger will ‘definitely reconsider flying anywhere for a long time'
A passenger caught in this week’s travel chaos has warned that she “will definitely reconsider flying anywhere for a long time” – and “dreads to think how Gatwick would handle a real disaster”.
Lynda Racz-Taylor had been part of a dozen-strong group flying from Gatwick to join 16 other family members in Tolouse for their neice’s 30th birthday, which was “ruined” as the air traffic control nightmare unfolded on Monday.
While they have been offered the choice of rebooking or a refund by EasyJet, just three of their original party has been able to rebook new flights due to work and school commitments, with the earliest available on Wednesday evening.
Upon eventually leaving the airport yesterday after the cancellation, they were unable to pick up their cars from the off-site car park, meaning Ms Racz-Taylor’s husband and brothers had to return to the airport this morning to collect them.
Noting that the information desk was “absolutely swamped”, Ms Racz-Taylor told The Independent: “Gatwick and easyJet really need to consider trying some kind of crisis team for these kind of disruptions.
“We got the feeling ‘not my job, [I’m] out of here’, we even overheard airport staff on the shuttle bus saying that. I dread to think how Gatwick would handle a real disaster… after this trip I will definitely reconsider flying anywhere for a long time, it gets worse, air travel is just awful in general.”
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 15:14
Family spends night in Leeds Bradford airport in bid to reach wedding anniversary party
Rafal Batko and his family, from Sheffield, spent the night at Leeds Bradford Airport after their flight to Krakow was cancelled.
Mr Batko, who is flying out for his mother and father-in-law’s wedding anniversary party, said: “We’ve been here for 17 hours. We tried to get into a hotel but there was no space because everyone was in the same position.
“It’s stressful but fingers crossed we’ll get on one today. If not we’ll have to go home, we are tired and everything is too expensive to buy.”
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 14:58
11-year-old boy ‘over the moon’ as pilot on grounded plane gives him tour of cockpit
With planes suck on the tarmac for hours yesterday, pilots were keeping families entertained by giving children tours of the cockpit as they waited for news of a possible departure.
Gwen Magarotto told The Independent that her son Spencer and his family were forced to “sit it out” on the tarmac at Corfu after their flight to Exeter was delayed.
But for her 11-year-old grandson Danny, who “adores planes”, the experience became the “highlight of his holiday” after the “kind” pilot allowed him to sit in the plane’s cockpit while explaining what all of the various dials and mechanisms were.
11-year-old Danny was ‘over the moon’ to be shown round the cockpit as the Magarottos’ flight was held on the tarmac
(Spencer Magarotto)
Ms Margarotto said her grandson had been “over the moon”, but was soon left “freezing” once their plane finally touched down back in Exeter following their holiday in the Greek sun.
You can read more stories from those caught up in yesterday’s chaos here:
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 14:48
More than 1,500 UK flights cancelled on Monday
Aviation analytics company Cirium said 790 departures and 785 arrivals were cancelled across all UK airports on Monday.
That was equivalent to around 27 per cent of all planned flights and means that around 250,000 people were affected.
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 14:14
Downing Street not ruling out French airline error may be to blame for meltdown
Our Politics and Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin reports:
Downing Street has said that airlines should be “proactively” communicating with passengers about their rights and taking “every possible steps” to communicate with their passengers about the disruption they are facing.
And No 10 did not rule out that an error by a French airline could have caused the chaos.
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 13:59
What is causing the air traffic control chaos? The authorities have some explaining to do
It’s the £80m question: Why are airlines facing enormous financial losses while their passengers endure extreme distress?
The last week of August is a time of high demand for air travel, especially from returning holidaymakers. Because of the UK’s limited airport infrastructure, especially in southeast England, there is precious little slack in the system: Heathrow and Gatwick are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.
So the UK’s normally well-regarded air traffic control (ATC) system needed to be working perfectly on bank holiday Monday.
The Independent’s travel expert Simon Calder looks at what may have gone wrong in his latest Plane Talk analysis:
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 13:50
Hundreds of flights cancelled again on Tuesday
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled again today, after some 1,200 flights were grounded on Monday in what marked the worst day for UK aviation since the Iceland volcano in 2010 .
Analysis of flight data websites by the PA news agency shows at least 281 flights were cancelled on Tuesday at the UK’s six busiest airports.
This consisted of 75 at Gatwick, 74 at Heathrow, 63 at Manchester, 28 at Stansted, 23 at Luton and 18 at Edinburgh.
Many other flights were significantly delayed.
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 13:29
French airline’s ‘dodgy flight plan set system meltdown in motion'
The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:
Several sources have told me that a French airline filed a dodgy flight plan that made no digital sense. The Nats system should automatically have identified an anomaly and spat out the plan, saying “try again”.
Yet instead, the flight plan was ingested and set in train a shutdown of the entire system. The closest analogy I can come up with is a spanner being thrown into an extremely well-tuned machine – let’s say an aircraft engine – and shutting the whole thing down. The big question Nats has to answer is: why wasn’t there protection against said spanner, and what is being done to avoid a repeat?
Safety was never an issue: UK air-traffic control has a well-deserved reputation for superb professionalism. But with so much emotional and financial cost being paid by passengers and airlines, the air-traffic control provider has some explaining to do. Very soon.
Andy Gregory29 August 2023 13:20
