UK Flight Chaos: Millisecond Software Glitch Grounds 2,000 Flights

WHO:

ABC News - NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, is responsible for the U.K. air traffic control system.

ABC News - Martin Rolfe is the chief executive of NATS.

ABC News - Heidi Alexander is the U.K. Transport Secretary.

WHAT:

ABC News - A software defect caused the cancellation of over 2,000 flights in and out of the United Kingdom.

TechRadar - The disruption left hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded.

ABC News - The chaos took days to clear up.

WHERE:

ABC News - The flight cancellations occurred in the United Kingdom.

WHEN:

ABC News - The software glitch occurred on Sept. 8.

WHY:

ABC News - The preliminary report indicated that the glitch was not due to human failings but rather a software defect in the National Airspace System.

ABC News - Martin Rolfe stated that the issue was traced to a small subsection of coding.

HOW:

ABC News - The software defect involved a corrupted manual request for a squawk code during processing.

ABC News - Mitigation measures are in place while a permanent fix is tested and deployed.

ABC News - The U.K. government owns 49% of NATS, allowing it to have a veto over key decisions.

A software defect in the National Air Traffic Services, or NATS, led to the cancellation of over 2,000 flights in and out of the United Kingdom, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers. Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of NATS, confirmed that the issue stemmed from a corrupted manual request for a squawk code, and preliminary reports indicate it was not due to human error but rather a coding problem. While mitigation measures are currently in place, the U.K. government, which owns 49% of NATS, is overseeing the deployment of a permanent fix.