The summer vacation manufacturers are in front of the chaos of travel after a loss of air traffic throughout the Great Britain.
The airspace throughout the UK was closed on Wednesday afternoon due to a radar problem that bothered hundreds of flights.
While the collapse was determined within an hour, the effects of hundreds of delays and redirections and redirections will be at least 155 cancellations for days.
Nats [National Air Traffic Services]The air traffic control company responsible for the British sky declined to exclude enemy foreign suits as the cause of the error and called for an “urgent examination” in a possible malignant interference.
But it is said that there was “no evidence” that was “cyber -related”.
The system failure came to the climax of the summer vacation period and before the busiest day of the year for commercial flights that fall on Friday.
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said: “Further disorders are expected” and asked the passengers to “explore individual airports after advice”.
Aviation expert John Strickland warned that the holidaymakers could be confronted in the days of chaos because the airlines were already thin during the summer vacation.
“In the absolutely worst case, this could knock for the next few days, since pretty much all airline fleets are used to fully tendency,” he said.
However, it is unlikely that affected travelers are entitled to compensation because the incident was outside the control of the airlines that would otherwise pay.
The failure came just four months after a fire with a single electricity span that the Heathrow had closed for almost 24 hours.
Passengers are waiting at Heathrow Airport after radar failures led to the suspension of flights – Jack Taylor
The passengers were left on the asphalt at airports across Great Britain, including Heathrow, Birmingham, Gatwick, Stansted and Cardiff, while incoming aircraft in Europe such as Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels were sent to the destinations.
In Edinburgh, a group of 40 French holidaymakers had been stranded after two flights to Paris had been canceled, while tourists in Faro were informed of the Telegraph that flight attendants divided water to cope with delays in the Portuguese heat.
Virgin Atlantic apologized to those affected, while British Airways said the problem was “the vast majority of our flights”, with at least half a dozen flights being distracted.
A BA source said: “We still don’t know what this has caused, but it seems to have been a radar problem, and Nats are responsible for the radar, so you have to say that the money stops with them.”
The Telegraph understands that the air traffic control system has been switched off when radar systems at NATS ‘Swanwick Area Control Center in Hampshire stopped flights around 2:30 p.m. in order to force the controllers to no longer accept the acceptance of new arrival in the British airspace.
All flights on the floor that went to British airports were immediately stopped by lifting, while those who were in the air were redirected elsewhere outside the British sky.
Flights that prepared for the landing in Great Britain when the failure took place could certainly do so because they only influenced the upper air space unit from NATs that do not handle individual airports.
The telegraph understands domestic flights during the failure, provided that they stayed below 24,500 feet.
This is because the failure was limited to the Swanwick center that only controls flights above this amount.
People Bord A Ryanair aircraft after an air traffic control failure at Stansted Airport – Carl Court/Getty Images
NATs was given up because of the failure that came two years after an engineer who worked from home to repair a four -hour failure. This was forced to cancel thousands of flights around the world, disrupted 700,000 passengers and costs airlines, travelers and other estimated £ 100 million.
On Wednesday, Ryanair Martin Rolfe, the managing director of Nats, demanded back to step back after he claimed that no lessons had been learned from the 2023 Meltdown.
Neal McMahon, Chief Operating Officer from Ryanair, said: “It is outrageous that the passengers will continue to be released by Martin Rolfes mismanagement against NATs.
“Another failure of ATC systems has led to the British airspace interrupted the final plans of the passengers.
“It is clear that since the NATs system failure of the Nats 2023 in August 2023 and passengers have been learned under lessons.”
He asked the transport secretary to “act without delay to remove Martin Rolfe and urgently reform the Shambolian ATC service of NATs so that airlines and passengers are no longer forced to endure these avoidable delays caused by persistent NATs misconduct”.
Martin Rolfe, the managing director of Nats, was on the resignation of Martin Rolfe – Finnbar/Alamy
The bosses of air traffic control confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the service was restored, but refused to answer all questions about the basic cause or about the future of Mr. Rolfe with the company.
In a statement, NATs said: “Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. We are in the process of resuming normal operation in the London region.
“We continue to work closely with the customers of airlines and airport to minimize the disorder. We apologize for any inconvenience that caused this.”
Sir Ed Davey, the liberal democratic leader, demanded a state investigation into whether NATs fell victim to a foreign hack.
He said on Wednesday: “It is absolutely unacceptable that the air traffic control was again hit by a technical error after a serious disorder two years ago.
“The government should initiate an urgent examination to ensure that the system is suitable for purposes, including excluding enemy measures as the cause.”
A spokesman for the transport department said: “While the passengers should continue to look for advice with individual airports, NATs have confirmed that their systems are now fully functional and the flights are normal again.
“We work closely with NATs to understand the cause of the technical problem and the effects on the existing resilience systems.”