The UK’s air authority is carrying out an enquiry into the air-traffic control debacle that left airports and travellers in chaos on 28 August 2023.
Over 2,000 flights cancelled
The incident took place on August Bank Holiday Monday, a national vacation day in the UK that is widely looked forward to as one of the highlights of the summer hospitality season. Nearly 300,000 people starting their summer holiday or coming back from it, were affected when the computer system that manages flights in UK airspace failed, causing the cancellation of over 2,000 flights.
The problem was attributed at the time to an attempt to upload a flight plan that contained errors. Michael O’Leary of Ryanair has called the explanation given “ludicrous”, particularly the fact that the supposed “back-up system” failed too and the air traffic service Nats was unable to resolve the issue for hours.
Independent review
Nats is overseen by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which has the power to regulate the body and change how its services are priced. The CAA has now announced an independent review of what happened. Spearheaded by former Chair of the airport slot management group ACL, Jeff Halliwell, the investigation will examine the factors behind the catastrophe, as well as making recommendations to avoid a recurrence.
How well Nats communicated internally and externally, its protocols for dealing with major incidents, its capacity, staff availability and response times will all come under the scope of the investigation.
We’re launching an independent review into the technical issue NATS faced on Monday 28 August.
— UK Civil Aviation Authority (@UK_CAA) September 6, 2023
Our review will look at the wider issues around the system failure and how NATS responded to the incident.
Find out more➡️https://t.co/xCT5eP3Xaw#AirTrafficDisruption pic.twitter.com/182QIAusGF
“The events of the 28 August bank holiday had a significant impact on many passengers. That’s why we’ve launched this independent review to understand what happened and learn lessons for the future,” said CAA’s chief executive Rob Bishton.
Passengers’ rights neglected
Another key area under review is how well airlines met their legal obligations to passengers whose flights were cancelled or delayed. Cancelling a flight makes carriers directly responsible for providing passengers with suitable alternative transport in a timely fashion – as well as for providing a hotel room as needed. These obligations were not met in all instances, according to reporting by The Independent. Some passengers were left coping by themselves with the hassle and cost of dealing with lost flights, lost dream holidays, or getting themselves home.
“It is clear lessons need to be learnt. I am looking forward to working with industry and passengers to tackle this review to really understand how the incident occurred, how it was managed and identify any recommendations,” said Halliwell.
