UK air disruption

Massive air disruption across UK
Thousands of air passengers are facing delays after an air traffic control
computer failure caused flights to be suspended across the UK.
National Air Traffic Services said flights were grounded so that controllers
could prioritise on planes in the air, but safety was unaffected.

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton is now fully operational
again and flights are resuming.

Many airports are advising people to check in as normal.

Nats' Flight Data Processing System failed at around 0600BST for an hour.

Speaking to BBC News 24 Chief Executive Richard Everitt said the failure
followed overnight testing of an upgrade to its Flight Data Processing
System in West Drayton.


What we did here was to ensure safety levels were maintained, we did that by
taking the traffic right down
Richard Everitt
Nats chief executive
"This is a significant upgrade that we will be doing later in the year, we
have to test that very thoroughly because safety is paramount.
"We will now investigate why there was this problem - clearly it was not an
anticipated problem - a lot of work will be done today to understand why we
had problems with this testing," he said.

"What we did here was to ensure safety levels were maintained, we did that
by taking the traffic right down, handling the arrivals while we sorted this
problem out. "

Mr Everitt said Nats was planning on spending over £1bn on upgrading its
system over the next eight years.

He apologised to passengers and said Nats was working with airlines to
minimise disruption.

'Upgrade'

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Transport Secretary Alistair
Darling insisted Britain's system compared favourably with other countries.


"We are putting the money in, it is making a difference.

"If you look at the delays caused by air traffic control failure they have
come down dramatically over the last few years," he added.

BBC transport correspondent Tom Symonds says the affected computer systems
were not those that handle the separation of aircraft in the air.

He says the fault was in what is known as the host control system, a
two-year-old computer system at West Drayton.

The system handles flight strips which are the basic details of flights
coming in and out of the UK.

'Uptight'

Spokesman for London's Heathrow Airport, Mark Pearson, said: "There is
serious disruption at Heathrow as a result of the air traffic control
situation.


As long as there is an aircraft and someone waiting for us at the other end
we'll be fine
Passenger Gerald Godfrey
"There is an average of two hour delays on departures and restrictions on
arrivals."

He advised passengers to check with their airlines before leaving home.

Passengers Monica and Gerald Godfrey - waiting for a British Airways flight
from Heathrow to Toronto - told BBC News Online their flight had been
delayed by the problems.

The couple said they would have a cup of tea and relax after checking in.

"It depends on how long the delay is, we might get a little uptight," Mrs
Godfrey said.

Mr Godfrey added: "But at the end of the day there's nothing we can do about
it.

"As long as there is an aircraft and someone waiting for us at the other end
we'll be fine."

Have you been affected by the delays? Send us your experiences using the
form below.


"Computer failure" blamed again. I hope one day we'll hear whether this was
a genuine computer failure, or a human error. If the former, why were hot
backups not immediately available? If the latter, will heads roll? Simply
blaming "computer failure" may have been acceptable in the '70s, but this is
2004; no one point of failure - computer or otherwise - should be able to
cause this much chaos.
Anon,UK

I was affected and decided to cancel my business trip, however I'd sooner
have a few hours delay and know my safety once in the air was in good hands
and being controlled by the latest computer technology. An upgrade is
essential to make sure we all remain safe.
Ricky, Milton Keynes, Bucks


I gave up and went back home to conduct my meetings by telephone
Mike Hardcastle, Manchester UK
0830 BA Flight to Belfast City delayed and then cancelled for technical
reasons. I gave up and went back home to conduct my meetings by telephone.
Mike Hardcastle, Manchester UK
This is so typical of many services within the UK. My sister was due to fly
from Dublin to Stanstead and then catch a connecting flight to Dinard
France. She was delayed for 3 hours in Dublin has now missed her connecting
flight and is now stuck in London. She is unable to catch a later flight as
there is only one flight a day to Dinard. It cost 200 euros for the ticket
to come and she has to pay for a return flight to Dublin. Apologies do
little for this family and now I will have no family here to help me
celebrate my daughters first birthday....
Anne Marie O'Rourke , Rennes France

My inbound flight from JFK landed at early at 0515 - What a stroke of luck!
Brian O'Connor, Blackburn Lancs

I was on my way to my flight to Bari in Italy this morning. Only to find
from the radio, that my flight from Heathrow, which was scheduled for 6.30
was running two hours late. I had no choice but to abandon my meeting. This
is a major inconvenience.
Mahmood Snipe, Braintree

What were they doing testing an upgrade on a live computer? The IT managers
responsible should be sacked for incompetence of the highest order.
Bob Harris, Bristend, Herts


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/3772077.stm

Published: 2004/06/03 09:09:11 GMT

© BBC MMIV

"Miss L. Toe" wrote in message
...
Massive air disruption across UK

I just rang the BA automated enquiry system about a flight I am due to meet
later today. Their web site has a '-' next to time of departure.

The automated system said 'Actually there is a delay on that flight" - It is
now scheduled to leave 1 minute later :-)

We shall see...

On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 11:07:22 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton is now fully operational
again and flights are resuming.

must have been a massive task to refurbish it and get it operational
again in such a short space of time. :-)

--
Lansbury
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup

"Lansbury" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 11:07:22 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton is now fully operational
again and flights are resuming.

must have been a massive task to refurbish it and get it operational
again in such a short space of time. :-)


But have they gone back to the old software release, or fixed the new one ?

On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 14:08:46 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

But have they gone back to the old software release, or fixed the new one ?

Fixed the new one I think but at Swanick.

"Lansbury" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 14:08:46 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

But have they gone back to the old software release, or fixed the new one
?

Fixed the new one I think but at Swanick.


'On the fly' ? (pun intended) - without testing the fix ?

"Miss L. Toe" wrote in message
...
'On the fly' ? (pun intended) - without testing the fix ?

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3772663.stm
-- Mr Everitt apologised to passengers and said Nats was
-- working with airlines to minimise disruption.
--
-- "We will now investigate why there was this problem -
-- clearly it was not an anticipated problem - a lot of work
-- will be done today to understand why we had problems
-- with this testing," he said.

By "We will now investigate" my cynical side (and experience as a freelance
systems troubleshooter) suggests that they already know exactly what
happened, but a nice long bit of investigation works wonders at diluting the
backlash.

Cheers, Howard

"Howard Long" wrote in message
...
"Miss L. Toe" wrote in message
...
'On the fly' ? (pun intended) - without testing the fix ?

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3772663.stm
-- Mr Everitt apologised to passengers and said Nats was
-- working with airlines to minimise disruption.
--
-- "We will now investigate why there was this problem -
-- clearly it was not an anticipated problem - a lot of work
-- will be done today to understand why we had problems
-- with this testing," he said.

By "We will now investigate" my cynical side (and experience as a
freelance
systems troubleshooter) suggests that they already know exactly what
happened, but a nice long bit of investigation works wonders at diluting
the
backlash.

Cheers, Howard



And they didnt have problems with the testing they had problems with the
live running - so the tester should be in BIG trouble.

and yes they 'must'know what happend or how did they fix it

"Lansbury" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 11:07:22 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton is now fully operational
again and flights are resuming.

must have been a massive task to refurbish it and get it operational
again in such a short space of time. :-)

Computer was only down for one hour.

On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 14:00:55 +0100, Lansbury
wrote:

On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 11:07:22 +0100, "Miss L. Toe"
wrote:

The air traffic control centre at West Drayton is now fully operational
again and flights are resuming.

must have been a massive task to refurbish it and get it operational
again in such a short space of time. :-)
What century is this Lansbury?, how far behind was Swanwick? before
becoming ops. How reliable is it? and again.. what centrury is this?
Gawds help us!!