Britain suffered air travel chaos on Friday -- just as its peak Christmas season was getting under way -- because of a computer failure at an air traffic control centre.
Flights were unable to take off or land at some British airports during the brief breakdown, which caused flow-on delays and backlogs at airports around Europe.
London's Heathrow Airport -- Europe's busiest hub -- said 50 flights had to be cancelled. It warned passengers to check their flight status before setting off.
After more than an hour in which some departures were blocked and arrivals diverted, Britain's NATS, the main air navigation service, said the system had been restored and flights were returning to normal.
The London airports system, including airports such as Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, is the busiest hub in the world with around 135 million passengers a year.
Other British airports were also affected, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Leeds.
"Disruption on this scale is simply unacceptable and I have asked NATS for a full explanation of this evening's incident," transport minister Patrick McLoughlin said.
"I also want to know what steps will be taken to prevent this happening again."
Brussels-based Eurocontrol, which reported the shut-down in London airspace, said a "measured recovery" was under way.
NATS had earlier said that it was "restricting traffic volumes" following a technical problem at the state-of-the-art £700-million ($1-billion, 880-million-euro) Swanwick control centre near Portsmouth on the southern English coast.
"It will take time for operations across the UK to fully recover so passengers should contact their airline for the status of their flight," NATS said.
"We apologise for any delays and the inconvenience this may have caused."
"We are investigating the cause of this fault."
- Planes forced to fly back -
Air France said around 20 of its flights were affected, including one flight headed for Dublin which was forced to turn back to Paris.
Two Iberia flights that left Madrid for London also returned to their departure point.
British media reported that there had been a "radar display issue".
Aviation journalist David Learmount said the computer failure would cause "major disruption" but the situation should be back to normal on Saturday.
"This impacts not just people within the UK, it impacts flights heading here from anywhere," he told the BBC.
"Anything heading this way will be told some of them can't be accepted, and they will have to go back to where they flew from or consider diverting to other countries."
This is not the first time that a technical failure at Swanwick has caused travel chaos.
Hundreds of flights in Britain and Ireland were delayed or cancelled last year due to a similar problem.
At Heathrow, Susan Atkinson and her husband Michael Alcock, from Connecticut in the United States, anxiously awaited news on their flight to Manchester in northwest England.
They were heading to see relatives for the first time in two years.
"I just want to get home to see my father and sister. I couldn't make it last year because of ill health," Atkinson said.
"Hopefully we can fly tonight, we don't have anyone to stay with here in London."
Her husband added: "The word to describe how we're feeling is disappointed.
"If the hours go by without anything changing that could become more hostile feelings, especially since we don't really know what is going on."
Britain suffered air travel chaos on Friday — just as its peak Christmas season was getting under way — because of a computer failure at an air traffic control centre.
Flights were unable to take off or land at some British airports during the brief breakdown, which caused flow-on delays and backlogs at airports around Europe.
London’s Heathrow Airport — Europe’s busiest hub — said 50 flights had to be cancelled. It warned passengers to check their flight status before setting off.
After more than an hour in which some departures were blocked and arrivals diverted, Britain’s NATS, the main air navigation service, said the system had been restored and flights were returning to normal.
The London airports system, including airports such as Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, is the busiest hub in the world with around 135 million passengers a year.
Other British airports were also affected, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Leeds.
“Disruption on this scale is simply unacceptable and I have asked NATS for a full explanation of this evening’s incident,” transport minister Patrick McLoughlin said.
“I also want to know what steps will be taken to prevent this happening again.”
Brussels-based Eurocontrol, which reported the shut-down in London airspace, said a “measured recovery” was under way.
NATS had earlier said that it was “restricting traffic volumes” following a technical problem at the state-of-the-art £700-million ($1-billion, 880-million-euro) Swanwick control centre near Portsmouth on the southern English coast.
“It will take time for operations across the UK to fully recover so passengers should contact their airline for the status of their flight,” NATS said.
“We apologise for any delays and the inconvenience this may have caused.”
“We are investigating the cause of this fault.”
– Planes forced to fly back –
Air France said around 20 of its flights were affected, including one flight headed for Dublin which was forced to turn back to Paris.
Two Iberia flights that left Madrid for London also returned to their departure point.
British media reported that there had been a “radar display issue”.
Aviation journalist David Learmount said the computer failure would cause “major disruption” but the situation should be back to normal on Saturday.
“This impacts not just people within the UK, it impacts flights heading here from anywhere,” he told the BBC.
“Anything heading this way will be told some of them can’t be accepted, and they will have to go back to where they flew from or consider diverting to other countries.”
This is not the first time that a technical failure at Swanwick has caused travel chaos.
Hundreds of flights in Britain and Ireland were delayed or cancelled last year due to a similar problem.
At Heathrow, Susan Atkinson and her husband Michael Alcock, from Connecticut in the United States, anxiously awaited news on their flight to Manchester in northwest England.
They were heading to see relatives for the first time in two years.
“I just want to get home to see my father and sister. I couldn’t make it last year because of ill health,” Atkinson said.
“Hopefully we can fly tonight, we don’t have anyone to stay with here in London.”
Her husband added: “The word to describe how we’re feeling is disappointed.
“If the hours go by without anything changing that could become more hostile feelings, especially since we don’t really know what is going on.”
