Flight chaos caused by software defect, says air traffic control body
The UK's National Air Traffic Services (Nats) confirmed that a "software defect" caused widespread flight chaos earlier this month, leading to over 2,000 cancellations and affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. The defect occurred in the system underpinning UK airspace management, producing corrupted data and necessitating air traffic restrictions.
Why it matters
This incident highlights the critical vulnerability of essential infrastructure to software failures, impacting national travel, the economy, and raising questions about system resilience and accountability within air traffic control.
Image source, Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Image caption, Thousands of passengers were delayed by the NATS outage
An air traffic control system failure that sparked widespread travel chaos earlier this month was caused by a "software defect", the UK's National Air Traffic Services (Nats) has said.
The failure led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected, with some sleeping on airport floors or getting stuck overseas.
Flights in and out of the UK's main airports were affected, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Glasgow.
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