IT crash grounds all UK flights

BRITAIN was plunged into travel chaos this morning after a major air traffic control computer failure temporarily grounded most flights across the country.

National Air Traffic Services confirmed that most flights from UK airports were suspended early this morning because of a computer failure.

The authority said it had taken the decision to ground flights so that controllers could ensure safety for those aircraft already in the air and approaching UK airspace.

A spokesman for Nats denied that safety had been affected and said the decision to suspend most flights followed a serious computer breakdown.

Although the control system is now up and running again, lengthy delays have built up and passengers to and from UK airports can expect extended delays in getting to their destinations today. Sources at Heathrow airport said passengers could expect delays of at least three hours.

A British Airways spokesman earlier blamed the problem on computers at the Swanick air traffic control centre operated by National Air Traffic Services (NATS) but it later emerged that the computer system affected was based at the air traffic control centre in West Drayton, near Uxbridge in Middlesex.

'Some of our flights are arriving at Heathrow and our next lot of flights will be leaving, although there will be delays,' the BA spokesman added.

A spokesman for Manchester airport, meanwhile, said the system crashed at just after 5am and was only partially restored by 5.55am.

'I am told the system is now operational again, and flights are restarting. But there will obviously be serious delays. There will obviously be flow problems,' the spokeswoman said.

Today's computer failure comes just six weeks after NATS revealed that delays caused by IT problems had fallen to their lowest level in 10 years.