UK aviation regulator to review failure of air traffic control system
Britain’s aviation regulator will launch an independent review into the failure of the air traffic control system over the August bank holiday that grounded hundreds of aircraft and left thousands of passengers stranded. The review by the Civil Aviation Authority comes after an interim report by the National Air Traffic Services found that a “logic error” occurred after a part of its system incorrectly processed a flight plan from an airline that was due to fly over UK airspace. As airlines stepped up calls for their costs to be covered, Nats said the failure was a “one in 15mn event”. The agency described it as “an extremely rare set of circumstances presented by a flight plan that included two identically named, but separate waypoint markers outside of UK airspace”. The outage on August 28 was the worst in more than a decade and led to the cancellation of over 1,500 flights on the day, with more on subsequent days as airlines tried to recover their schedules. Tim Alderslade, CE of industry body Airlines UK, said carriers were “seeking clarity on what options exist for Nats to cover our costs under the current legislation”. Michael O’Leary, CE of Ryanair, criticised the interim report as a “whitewash” and claimed that it downplayed the impact of the outage on the industry. He said the disruption had left the low-cost airline with a bill of between GBP15m and GBP20m in passenger refunds. Nats said it stood by its report, which detailed the sequence of events that started when the agency received information about a flight due to cross the UK’s airspace later that day. Airlines have to submit flight plans detailing their routes and timings to air traffic controllers in order to minimise the risk of mid-air collisions, including waypoints or markers along the route.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-09-07/general/uk-aviation-regulator-to-review-failure-of-air-traffic-control-system
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UK aviation regulator to review failure of air traffic control system
Britain’s aviation regulator will launch an independent review into the failure of the air traffic control system over the August bank holiday that grounded hundreds of aircraft and left thousands of passengers stranded. The review by the Civil Aviation Authority comes after an interim report by the National Air Traffic Services found that a “logic error” occurred after a part of its system incorrectly processed a flight plan from an airline that was due to fly over UK airspace. As airlines stepped up calls for their costs to be covered, Nats said the failure was a “one in 15mn event”. The agency described it as “an extremely rare set of circumstances presented by a flight plan that included two identically named, but separate waypoint markers outside of UK airspace”. The outage on August 28 was the worst in more than a decade and led to the cancellation of over 1,500 flights on the day, with more on subsequent days as airlines tried to recover their schedules. Tim Alderslade, CE of industry body Airlines UK, said carriers were “seeking clarity on what options exist for Nats to cover our costs under the current legislation”. Michael O’Leary, CE of Ryanair, criticised the interim report as a “whitewash” and claimed that it downplayed the impact of the outage on the industry. He said the disruption had left the low-cost airline with a bill of between GBP15m and GBP20m in passenger refunds. Nats said it stood by its report, which detailed the sequence of events that started when the agency received information about a flight due to cross the UK’s airspace later that day. Airlines have to submit flight plans detailing their routes and timings to air traffic controllers in order to minimise the risk of mid-air collisions, including waypoints or markers along the route.<br/>
