Summer of air traffic chaos looms

Four-hour computer breakdown at Heathrow control centre forces flight cancellations and long delays

Keith Harper and Maev Kennedy Monday June 19, 2000

Air authorities were last night bracing themselves for the possibility of a summer of severe disruption to passengers due to an overload on the national air traffic control system. Senior managers at Britain's biggest air traffic control centre were last night trying to find the reason for the second breakdown of the computer in only eight days. Airlines were still struggling yesterday to return to normal, and some flights were up to eight hours late.

A spokesperson for National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said the system at West Drayton, near Heathrow, had been out for four hours on Saturday. An immediate investigation had been mounted but the fault had not been identified.

Passenger traffic into and out of Britain is increasing by 5% a year and the strain on the system grows inexorably, stretched to the limits during the summer holiday period. The computer that prints out information strips for air traffic control staff is nine years old, but is still considered to be up to date and safe.

The strips provide information to controllers on the position of all aircraft, including those flying over Britain from Europe and the Atlantic. On Saturday staff were forced to write out strips manually, resulting in controls being placed on the number of aircraft taking off and landing at British airports. The overall capacity of Britain's air traffic control system was cut by three quarters.

An industry source said the problem was computer overload. West Drayton controls not only the number of fights taking off and landing in London and the south-east, but the planes that fly over the UK.

The source said the number of flights rose considerably at this time of the year because of the sudden increase in holidays. "We have to face the fact that under some circumstances the computer cannot cope," the source said.

Nats said: "The safety of aircraft has at no time been threatened. We imposed the flow controls in order to guarantee safety."

The disruption highlights the need for the much-delayed #600m Swanwick control centre, in Hampshire, to start operating. The centre has been bedevilled by computer glitches and is still two years away from completion.

It should have opened in 1996 but problems with software have held it up. When it is fully commissioned it will take over all the work from West Drayton, which is to be shut down. But the handover will take several years and will not be completed until Nats is confident about the safety of each part of the plan and the training of staff.

Thousands of passengers were still stranded yesterday, more than 24 hours after the computer collapsed. One of those who had to turn back was William Hague, the Conservative leader, who had intended to fly to Portugal for a meeting with leaders of European centre-right parties.

All the big airlines, including British Airways and British Midlands, had to cancel flights, partly because aircraft were in the wrong place.

A spokeswoman at Heathrow said 316 flights - one in four - had been cancelled at the weekend. The low-cost airline, EasyJet, scrapped its entire operations on Saturday.

Electronic warning signs on all the approach roads to Heathrow flashed out the bad news yesterday: "Severe delays arrivals and departures."

Although the backlog was slowly cleared throughout the day, the entire departures floor of terminal one, the worst affected, was snarled up in huge check-in queues, snaking across the building and leading to baffled arguments where the lines crossed.

There were signs of tempers fraying among exhausted staff and travellers. The most fortunate had lived near enough to the airport to go home on Saturday night and return, but some had spent all night in the airport. They got away on the earliest flights, causing a knock-on build-up of people waiting for later flights.

The cafe repeatedly had to send for new supplies of mineral water, and several people fainted. By lunchtime on the hottest day of the year security staff were discreetly advising elderly passengers to take refuge in the comparative coolness of the room usually reserved for children travelling alone.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 19, 2000