The British Air Traffic Authority (Nats) communicated this morning that a failure has affected its control systems, which is why restrictions have been applied to several flights arriving and departing from the United Kingdom to ensure their safety. In the afternoon, Nats itself announced the end of the emergency triggered by the technical failure of the data processing systems, with serious consequences for departing or arriving passengers who will remain in any case for several hours. The result has been devastating for legions of passengers, stranded for a long time or even forced to abandon their journey: with thousands of take-offs subject to heavy delays and hundreds to total cancellations, departing both from London or from other airports in the British Isles, both from various European and non-European countries on the reverse route. The disruption was first disclosed in a message broadcast in the morning on X by the local Scottish company Loganair; followed closely by the rain of complaints from travelers involved and therefore by alerts to users of leading carriers such as British Airways, EasyJet or Ryanair.
The situation
Nats spoke of a serious IT problem, the European air traffic authority Eurocontrol of very short delays, however the closure of airspace over Great Britain was never foreseen. At the moment the problem has not been linked to suspicions of hypothetical cyber attacks by hackers and hostile agents. Delays and cancellations have therefore occurred at many British and Irish airports. The nature of the hitch was identified in the afternoon, and engineers have corrected the fault, a Nats spokeswoman confirmed. The delays and cancellations accumulated in the meantime (thousands for the former, up to over 500 for the latter) are in any case destined to make their effects felt for several hours, the authorities and the carriers’ representatives pointed out. With a queuing of planes that cannot be disposed of until at least tomorrow before a full return to normality.
Flights canceled and delayed in Italy due to the English chaos
Planes canceled and delayed also in Italian and European airports due to the blockade of English airspace. The bad weather that is affecting Northern Europe and the congestion of air traffic over France and Germany as a consequence of the closure of the British airspace is causing further delays and cancellations. According to what is learned, air traffic in England should reopen at 7 pm but the inconvenience in Italy and Europe will continue even after.
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Source-tg24.sky.it