Data link failure causes airport chaos

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Some 10,000 passengers were stranded and 90 planes cancelled because of a data link failure in the Swanwick National Air Traffic Control Services (NATS) system control centre late yesterday.

Cancellations and delays were still affecting London’s main airports this morning, as well as services at Cardiff International and Manchester, after a fault in one of the systems that feeds the controller workstations at the London Area Control Centre prevented key flight data from being automatically passed between sector controllers.

The disruption occurred when the IT failure required that restrictions were imposed on the number of aircraft entering UK airspace through London Area Control sectors – airspace above 24,000 feet above England and Wales – and those taking off from major UK airports.

NATS spokesman Richard Wright told IT PRO the restrictions on aircraft were imposed to maintain safety while controllers resorted to some manual systems.

He explained the system that air traffic controllers use to track a plane in real-time are used in conjunction with one that produces ‘flight progress strips,’ which are passed between controllers as the plane leaves and enters different airspace sectors.

“The screens will show the controller where the plane actually is, at 30,000 feet and climbing say. But the strips automatically tell the next controller what the last controller instructed it to do next, that is climb to 35,000 feet, for example and so, are an integral part of what’s needed to control a flight,” Wright said.

“But the main data link to the London Area Control centre was interrupted at 3.56pm and controllers had to resort to passing on flight progress strip information manually, which obviously takes longer,” he added.

Wright said that the link was re-established and systems were back online by 5pm yesterday and running at 100 per cent capacity by 7pm. Meanwhile, NATS is still investigating the source of the problem, while working with the airlines and airports to clear aircraft backlogs.

Ian Hall, NATS operational performance director added in a statement: “NATS handles nearly 2.5 million flights a year and our systems are incredibly resilient. We do sincerely apologise for inconvenience to travellers.”

But the £623-million Swanwick air traffic control centre, which underwent a £50-million system upgrade in March last year, has not been immune to IT glitches since it was opened six years ago.

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