An air traffic control system failure that crippled UK airspace earlier this week, resulting in the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights and affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers, has been attributed to a military aircraft. According to a report, the massive disruption occurred when the aircraft submitted “spurious” flight data into the system used by the National Air Traffic Services (Nats), triggering a four-hour shutdown.
Reports indicate that the system meltdown remained unresolved for several hours. During the crisis, Nats operations officer Kathryn Leahy reportedly contacted airport and airline managers, where tensions rose as it was revealed that the flight processing system lacked a dedicated backup. This absence of redundancy was attributed to Nats undergoing a “complete overhaul of its systems,” with officials noting that the vast volume of data handled made duplicating the system prohibitively expensive.
The incident has intensified pressure on Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of Nats. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander held a meeting with Rolfe on Wednesday, stating she did “not believe the issue was unavoidable.” Alexander has demanded a report on the causes of the outage within one week and has commissioned an independent review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). This failure marks the most significant disruption to British commercial airspace since August 2023, when a technical fault caused nearly 1,600 delays. Despite Nats claiming it had implemented all 34 recommendations issued by the CAA following the 2023 incident, the current crisis has sparked renewed calls for leadership changes.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has publicly demanded Rolfe’s resignation, describing his position as “untenable” and accusing him of “telling lies to save his own skin.” Rolfe has formally ruled out the possibility of a cyber-attack, noting that he believes the incident is a unique event in 50 years of operations. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence has stated there is no indication of wrongdoing by the military, with a spokesperson noting that the matter is currently under a live investigation by Nats.
As the fallout continues, many passengers remain unable to claim compensation, as the delays have been classified as “extraordinary circumstances.” The disruption left passengers stranded in aircraft for over four hours, while numerous incoming flights were forced to divert to alternative airports, including some in Germany.
A spokesperson from the MoD said: “We do not believe there’s any indication of an error on the part of the military. This is subject to the live Nats investigation, so it’d be inappropriate for us to comment further while that’s ongoing.”
