Air traffic control: NATS boss says ‘unreliable’ flight data caused widespread travel disruption
An air traffic control boss has said “unreliable” flight data was the cause of widespread disruption that affected thousands of passengers stuck at airports.
Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of National Air Traffic Services (NATS), said an initial investigation had found the air traffic control failure was caused by flight data which its system “didn’t understand” and “couldn’t interpret”.
Mr Rolfe added such “unreliable” data was kept away from air traffic controllers so they don’t “act in an unsafe way” – so NATS reverted to manual systems.
He said this allowed them to “continue operating but at a much lower capacity, handling less flights”.
The failure is estimated to cost airlines £100m, according to the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Willie Walsh.
Mr Walsh said the air traffic control system “should be designed to reject” incorrect data and not cause it to “collapse”, while speaking to the BBC.
But Mr Rolfe said rejecting flight data was “nothing like throwing away spam” for air traffic controllers.
He added: “If you throw away a critical piece of data you may end up – in the next 30 seconds, a minute or an hour – with something that then is not right on the screens in front of the controller.”
Mr Rolfe previously told Sky News: “You will understand we have very complex systems, handling something in the region of two million flights a year and the safety of those passengers is incredibly important to us.”
Live updates – air traffic chaos latest
Reports have suggested the chaos may have been caused after a French airline misfiled its flight plan.
Without confirming the reports, Mr Rolfe said: “It could be a single flight plan… if it is a flight plan that has caused this, we know it is something in the flight data and we will get to the bottom of it and understand why.
“We are conducting an investigation, we will conduct it incredibly thoroughly.”
NATS said earlier there is “no indication” it was targeted in a cyber attack.
Regardless of the cause, Mr Walsh said the compensation situation was “unfair” for airlines, as the air traffic control system “at the heart of this failure doesn’t pay a single penny”.
Chaos continued into second day
Hundreds of flights around the UK have been cancelled after Monday’s air traffic control disruption.
Flight plans had to be uploaded to systems manually, slowing or cancelling air traffic across the country.
Thousands of passengers were affected – and many are still waiting for their flights.
NATS said at 3.15pm on Monday the problem was resolved, but disruption continued into Tuesday as many aircraft and crews were out of position.
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Hundreds ‘stranded in shocking conditions’
Analysis of flight data websites shows at least 281 flights – including departures and arrivals – were cancelled on Tuesday at the UK’s six busiest airports.
This consisted of 75 at Gatwick, 74 at Heathrow, 63 at Manchester, 28 at Stansted, 23 at Luton and 18 at Edinburgh.
EasyJet announced it will run five repatriation flights to Gatwick following the air traffic control fault as well as operating larger aircraft on key routes.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said 790 departures and 785 arrivals were cancelled across all UK airports on Monday.
That was equivalent to around 27% of planned flights and means around a quarter of a million people were affected.
Passengers at Heathrow Airport
‘I have never felt so helpless’
British athletes were stranded in Budapest after the World Championships.
A group of around 40 athletes and staff from UK Athletics returned to their hotel in the Hungarian capital on Monday night because of the flight chaos.
Some of the affected athletes chose to travel directly to Zurich for Thursday’s Diamond League event.
Holidaymakers stuck in the UK and abroad described their frustration, as some had no idea when or how they would get to their destination.
Vicki Ostrowski emailed Sky News to say she was stranded in Oslo with a “disabled, wheelchair-bound passenger with a neurological disease, an 83-year-old frail relative, plus three other family members”.
She added: “I myself will run out of essential heart medication two days before the flight they have reassigned us on 2 September at 5pm!”
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Traveller stranded without medication
Kayleigh, another reader, got in touch to say she was stuck at Las Palmas airport in Gran Canaria.
“It’s been 13 hours, it’s freezing, and we are trying to get some sleep on the cold floor,” she said.
“There are children lying on the cold floor, people making public speeches about the airline and it is sheer pandemonium.
“I have never felt so helpless. Been awake for 22 hours. We’ve now spent 14 hours in the airport. We were told if we waited 2-3 hours they would sort out a hotel.
“We have still heard nothing with ground staff saying they don’t know anything and no one has been around to check if people are okay!”
UK
MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace steps down as Kirsty Wark among 13 who claim he made inappropriate sexual jokes
MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has stepped down over allegations he made a series of inappropriate sexual comments on a range of programmes over 17 years.
Broadcaster Kirsty Wark is among 13 people who have made claims, with Wallace being investigated by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK.
In an interview with the BBC, the Newsnight presenter, who was a celebrity contestant on MasterChef in 2011, claimed Wallace used “sexualised language”.
“There were two occasions in particular where he used sexualised language in front of a number of people and it wasn’t as if it was anyone engaged with this,” Wark said.
“It was completely one-way traffic. I think people were uncomfortable and something that I really didn’t expect to happen.”
Sky News has contacted Wallace’s representative for comment.
Kirsty Wark. File pic: PA
‘Fully cooperating’
Banijay UK said the complaints were made to the BBC this week by “individuals in relation to historical allegations of misconduct while working with Gregg Wallace on one of our shows”.
The company said the 60-year-old, who has been a co-presenter and judge of the popular cooking show since 2005, was “committed to fully cooperating throughout the process”.
“Whilst these complainants have not raised the allegations directly with our show producers or parent company Banijay UK, we feel that it is appropriate to conduct an immediate, external review to fully and impartially investigate,” the company said.
“While this review is under way, Gregg Wallace will be stepping away from his role on MasterChef and is committed to fully co-operating throughout the process.
“Banijay UK’s duty of care to staff is always a priority and our expectations regarding behaviour are made clear to both cast and crew on all productions, with multiple ways of raising concerns, including anonymously, clearly promoted on set.
“Whilst these are historical allegations, incidences brought to our attention where these expectations are not met, are thoroughly investigated and addressed appropriately.”
A BBC spokesman said: “We take any issues that are raised with us seriously and we have robust processes in place to deal with them.
“We are always clear that any behaviour which falls below the standards expected by the BBC will not be tolerated.
“Where an individual is contracted directly by an external production company we share any complaints or concerns with that company and we will always support them when addressing them.”
Previous investigation
Last month, Wallace responded to reports that a previous BBC review had found he could continue working at the corporation following reports of an alleged incident in 2018 when he appeared on Impossible Celebrities.
Wallace said those claims had been investigated “promptly” at the time and said he had not said “anything sexual” while appearing on the game show more than half a decade ago.
In an Instagram post following an article in The Sun newspaper, he wrote: “The story that’s hitting the newspapers was investigated promptly when it happened six years ago by the BBC.
“And the outcome of that was that I hadn’t said anything sexual. I’ll need to repeat this again. I didn’t say anything sexual.”
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Alongside MasterChef, Wallace presented Inside The Factory for BBC Two from 2015.
Wallace and Anne-Marie Sterpini in 2014. Pic: PA
Wallace has featured on various BBC shows over the years, including Saturday Kitchen, Eat Well For Less, Supermarket Secrets, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals, as well as being a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2014.
He was made an MBE for services to food and charity last year.
Recorded episodes of MasterChef: The Professionals featuring Wallace will be transmitted as planned, the PA news agency understands.
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