Computer sparks UK air chaos

2004-06-03 17:33

London - Tens of thousands of air passengers in Britain faced travel chaos on Thursday after an early-morning breakdown of a key air-traffic computer system that lasted just under an hour.

Hundreds of flights across the country, including from London's main Heathrow airport, were delayed when a computer undergoing an upgrade went on the blink about 06:00, officials said.

That was just at the time when long-haul flights from Asia and North America came in to land at British airports, and when domestic and European flights were starting to get into the air.

"Our computer system is now fully operational," said Adrian Yalland, a spokesman for National Air Traffic Services (Nats), after the glitch was fixed by 07:00.

"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," he said.

British Airport Authority, which runs Heathrow, one of the world's busiest international airports, told travellers to check in as usual, but warned them to expect delays.

Subject to disruption and cancellations

"There is serious disruption at Heathrow... There is an average of two-hour delays on departures and restrictions on arrivals," said Mark Pearson, a spokesperson for Heathrow which handles 1 250 flights a day.

British Airways said all its flights were "subject to disruption and cancellations".

As of 09:00, it said, it had seven flights out of London Heathrow and three out of Gatwick, the capital's second airport.

A reporter at Heathrow's terminal four found that, while long-haul flights to places like Chicago, Houston and Abu Dhabi were boarding as usual, there were long and growing queues for European destinations.

Flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen and Geneva were cancelled.

"The long hauls are fine. It's just the European flights we're having trouble with," said a British Airways representative.

Will take hours to get back to normal

The incident called into question the reliability of Britain's semi-privatised air-traffic control system, which has been undergoing a long-term modernisation programme under Nats.

"Apparently they were testing it overnight. When they switched it on again in the morning, it didn't work."

"They've now found the problem. They've now fixed it," he said.

"Unfortunately, it will take several hours to get things back to normal, simply because - as anyone who goes in and out of Heathrow will know - it doesn't take very much, because of the fact that airport is so busy, for disruption to be caused."

- AFP