LONDON. – Heathrow airport is functioning nearly normally again after a serious air traffic control failure in Britain over the past few days forced the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights.
According to CNN the problem was at NATS (National Air Traffic Services), Britain's air traffic control service. It affected roughly 15 British airports, with Heathrow hit hardest. Aircraft were rerouted to other airports, and aircraft and crews were consequently in the wrong places. This is why the problem persisted after the technical fault itself was fixed. NATS emphasised it was not a cyber attack and that safety was not at risk.
Chaotic scenes unfolded at Heathrow – passengers waited hours on aircraft and some had to spend the night on terminal floors.
Although flights resumed today (10 September), flights can still be delayed or cancelled as airlines are still working to relocate aircraft and crews to where they should be and some of the baggage and passengers who were stranded still need to move through the system.
Sources: CNN, The Independent
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
