A computer failure at a British air traffic control center grounded many of the country's flights yesterday morning.
The National Air Traffic Service said its computer system went down at about 6am, halting flights at airports across the country. The system was running again two hours later, but airports said the backlog of flights would cause delays throughout the day.
"Our computer system is now fully operational and safety being our primary concern we are now working to make sure those aircraft in the air and in need of landing should be able to do so to clear the delays," said air traffic spokesman Adrian Yalland.
PHOTO: AP
He said the fault was believed to be located at an operations center in West Drayton, near Heathrow Airport.
All flights were suspended at Heathrow, Britain's busiest airport. An airport spokesman said departing flights were facing delays of between one and two hours.
At Gatwick, flights were landing normally but departures were operating "in a very restricted flow rate," a spokesman said.
Delays were running at two or three hours early yesterday at Stansted Airport north of London, a major hub for budget airlines connecting Britain and the European continent.
At Manchester airport, a spokeswoman said flights were grounded for about an hour but began to resume around 7am. However, delays continued because of a backlog.
British Airways said there would be "severe delays throughout the day."
The air traffic service has been beset by problems since it was partially privatized in 2001. A US$484 million center at Swanwick in southern England opened five years late in 2002.
The opening was delayed by problems with computer software, and the glitches continued for months afterward, as controllers misread aircraft altitudes and destinations because of hard-to-decipher computer screens.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS