Skip Channel4 main Navigation

|Powered By Google


Skip to main content

Last Modified: 25 Sep 2008
By: Julian Rush

Four hours of air traffic chaos at British airports sees flights cancelled and delayed after computer failure at the main national air traffic control centre.

Flights to some of Britain's biggest airports have been being cancelled, disrupted and delayed, after a computer fault at the UK's main air traffic control centre this afternoon.

The problem affected the Swanwick air traffic control centre in Hampshire, which controls all the air space over England and Wales.

It meant aircraft were stopped from taking off from airports both across the south east, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton, and further afield in Manchester, Cardiff and Southampton.

Some aircraft due to take off from Europe to come into British airspace were also asked to delay their departures.

Engineers say the system should now be up and running, after fixing the problem at the Swanwick centre.

Share this article

Send this article to a friend »