Investigation into the Cause of the Air Traffic Control System Outage in the UK
It has been suggested that the major system failure, which led to the cancellation of thousands of flights, stemmed from data originating from a military aircraft.
More than 2,000 flights were cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers were stranded when the National Air Traffic Services system went offline in the UK. It was reported that the crisis was caused by a military aircraft entering faulty flight data into the system.
Cause of the System Failure
The four-hour outage in the UK's air traffic control system earlier in the week led to the cancellation of thousands of flights and affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
According to reports based on sources close to the matter, it was claimed that the failure stemmed from a British military aircraft entering faulty flight plan data into the system.
Backup and Communication Issues
It was stated that Kathryn Leahy, chief operations officer at the National Air Traffic Services, called airport and airline executives to inform them that there was no dedicated backup due to the system undergoing a full modernization process.
Official Meetings and Investigations
Following the crisis, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander summoned National Air Traffic Services Chief Executive Martin Rolfe to a meeting and requested a report on the incident.
It was also reported that an independent review has been launched by the Civil Aviation Authority regarding the process.
Ministry of Defence Statement
A spokesperson for the UK Ministry of Defence stated that there is no indication of any fault on the military's side and that the outcome of the ongoing investigation should be awaited.