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Telegraph

All planes grounded at London airports

4:32PM Analysis: Shutdown echoes summer 2023 The nationwide air traffic control shutdown this afternoon will immediately bring to mind the vast Nats outage of summer 2023. During that incident, which also happened during the key summer season, more than 700,000 passengers were stranded when flights had to be grounded following a technical glitch. A radar failure is said to be the cause of Wednesday's meltdown so far but details are, at the time of writing, scant. A simultaneous nationwide radar failure suggests at the very least a critical computer failure. The cause of that failure will be keenly scrutinised over the coming days, weeks and months. The full cost of that meltdown to airlines, airports passengers and others was around £100 million. Today's outage is shorter than 2023's four-hour meltdown, but the costs are likely to be in the same ballpark. An inquiry set up by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the regulator, into the August 28, 2023 incident found that Nats had rostered a support engineer to be on-call and working from home rather than on site that day, despite it being one of the busiest of the year in terms of passenger numbers. 4:31PM Problem resolved but disruption likely to continue The radar fault that forced the closure of all London-controlled airspace over the UK has now been fixed, Nats has said within the last few minutes, but knock-on delays are likely to continue. A spokesman for Nats said: 'Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area. 'We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption. 'We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.' 4:30PM 'Radar issues' causing nationwide shutdown London's skies are beginning to reopen, Eurocontrol has said within the last few minutes. The cause of the nationwide shutdown is said to be 'radar issues'. All of England and Wales' skies are controlled by Nats, the British air traffic control centre, from its HQ at Swanwick in Hampshire. A radar failure would leave controllers unable to see which aeroplanes are where in the sky, potentially affecting flight safety. The Telegraph has obtained footage from on board a plane at Faro airport in which an announcement blames 'radar system back in the UK' . 4:28PM No departures from Gatwick Gatwick Airport has confirmed that the 'technical issue' impacting Nats was impacting all outbound flights across the UK. A spokesman for Gatwick said: 'A technical issue impacting NATS is affecting all outbound flights across the UK. 'There are currently no departures from London Gatwick while the situation is being resolved. 'We are working with NATS to resume flights as quickly as possible. Inbound flights are still landing at the airport. Passengers should check the status of their flights with their airline.' 4:25PM Watch: Planes avoid the UK A timelapse from Flight Radar 24 reveals a plunge in the number of planes over the UK. Reports online suggested planes have been diverted to mainland Europe. 4:21PM Flights landing but skies sparse A Eurocontrol notice seen by The Telegraph instructed airlines that London airspace was closed to all incoming flights from 2.39pm GMT today. Flights that are still airborne over Britain appear to be landing safely as planned, according to Flight Radar 24 data, but planes appeared to be avoiding the airspace over London. 4:18PM Flights path over London 'limited' A spokesman for Nats, the air traffic control company in charge of Britain's skies, acknowledged a 'technical issue' but said he could give no indication of when the problems would be fixed. He said: 'As a result of a technical issue at Nats Swanwick air traffic control centre, we are limiting the number of aircraft flying in the London control area in order to ensure safety, which is always our first priority. 'We apologise for any delays this may cause. Our engineers are working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and we are working closely with airlines to help minimise disruption. 'At this stage we cannot say how long it will be before operations are back to normal. 'Please check with your airline on the status of your flight.' 4:14PM Good afternoon Welcome to our live coverage. We will be bringing you all the latest updates from the reported closure of London's airspace.