Several major airports were forced to halt operations due to a technical fault at the NATS air traffic control centre in Southampton, which left many planes stranded on the runway. NATS did not rule out the possibility of a hostile foreign attack or hackers, adding that it was a "radar problem" that was quickly resolved by switching to a backup system.
When the system became "fully operational" again, thousands of passengers faced delays of up to 5 hours, while more than 150 flights to and from Britain were cancelled.
Aircrews across the country were notified of a “radar failure” at the NATS centre in Southampton at 2.30pm. At 4.43pm, NATS announced that the problem had been resolved, but delays continued.
British Airways said the problems affected most of its flights. Birmingham Airport confirmed that all departing flights had been suspended. As of 7:15 p.m., Heathrow was operating at just 32 flights per hour, down from the normal 45.
Angry passengers were forced to postpone months-long holidays, while thousands of desperate Britons now face the dilemma of sleeping in airports or spending hundreds of pounds on accommodation after being "abandoned" by airlines at home and abroad.
Ryanair executives called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign following this air traffic incident.
A disgruntled holidaymaker in Croatia, who asked to remain anonymous, said he, his wife and two children were forced to sleep at Dubrovnik airport after easyJet cancelled their flight.
"EasyJet is a disgrace. They left us stranded with no help. They just told us to download the app – which didn't help us at all."
John Carr, a health specialist from Stourbridge, was stranded at Heathrow, missing his flight to Norway where he was invited to his brother's wedding. "Nobody warned us. We had suitcases full of things for the wedding. We don't know where we're going to sleep tonight," he said.
Monica Clare, 68, from London, missed out on seeing a relative down the aisle after her flight to Ireland was cancelled. "The wedding is in Limerick. They kept us on the plane for three hours and then told us the captain had finished his shift so they cancelled it. The hotel and rental car were waiting for us there. We won't be able to make it for the wedding."
A similar glitch on Thursday affected more than 700,000 passengers in August 2023, causing the cancellation of more than 500 flights in Britain. That problem took hours to resolve because the engineer who was supposed to fix it was working from home. In March this year, a fire at an electrical substation closed Heathrow, affecting more than 270,000 flights. (A2 Televizion)
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