There was huge chaos in Britain due to the breakdown of air traffic control system: Hundreds of flights including Air India were canceled and diverted, thousands of passengers stranded at Heathrow-Gatwick.

Britain’s entire aviation network from London to Manchester was suddenly thrown into deep trouble when the main flight data processing system of the country’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) suddenly suffered a serious technical failure. Due to this major disruption in the system, the entire automated process of safe operation of aircraft in British airspace, take-off clearance and route tracking came to a standstill. Air traffic controllers have been forced to drastically cut the number of aircraft taking off per hour, prioritizing safety standards, resulting in long queues for flights at all major international airports in the UK. Within no time, flight operations at London Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, which are among the world’s busiest airports, became completely disrupted.

This aviation crisis in Britain has also had a direct impact on the flights operating between India and Britain. Indian national airline Air India’s flight number AI 131, which departed from Mumbai to London Heathrow, was in European airspace when it was not allowed to land due to air traffic chaos in London. After this, this big plane filled with more than 290 passengers had to be diverted towards Zurich Airport in Switzerland. After waiting inside the plane on the runway for hours as the situation did not return to normal, the flight was eventually canceled and the passengers were deboarded in Zurich itself. Air India issued an official travel advisory clarifying that due to a technical glitch in Britain’s air traffic controller NATS, many of its flights to and from the UK had to be diverted, delayed or canceled. The airline also warned that due to aircraft and crew members deviating from their scheduled destinations, it could also impact the upcoming network schedule.

The sudden failure of the air traffic control system has created a dire situation for passengers at major UK airports. Hundreds of passengers were stuck inside the planes on the runway for three to four hours, where they were not able to get any concrete information about taking off or returning to the terminal. According to aviation monitoring platform Flightradar24 and industry sources, more than 1,000 flights were affected due to the technical disruption, with more than 300 to 600 flights directly cancelled. London Heathrow Airport said in its statement that the technical problem mainly affected the flights departing from here, due to which long queues were formed. At the same time, in Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham, hundreds of passengers were seen troubled at the boarding gate and baggage claim area without any clear information.

This technological crisis was not limited to the domestic borders of Britain, but its widespread impact was seen throughout the European and trans-Atlantic networks. British Airways admitted that more than 100 of its flights had to be canceled or diverted due to air traffic control problems. The airline said the crisis was completely beyond the airline’s control and its knock-on impact will continue for the next few days due to unavailability of crew and aircraft. Europe’s leading budget airline Ryanair said that more than 65 thousand of its passengers have been affected by this glitch and more than 50 services have had to be cancelled. Aircraft of leading airlines like EasyJet, KLM and Lufthansa also remained grounded at various airports in European countries due to lack of clearance.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) engineers have claimed to have fixed a major technical flaw in the flight data processing system after several hours of intensive technical effort. However, officials and aviation analysts believe that even after the system is restored, it may take at least 24 to 48 hours to completely clear the huge backlog at the airports. Indian passengers, students and business travelers traveling to and from London have been advised to compulsorily check the live flight status on their respective airline’s website or mobile app before leaving for the airport. Passengers traveling from India to London, Birmingham and Manchester have been asked to be prepared for unexpected delays and changes in schedules on connecting flights.