Flight chaos caused by software defect in space of a millisecond, report says

Overview: Summary

Key Points: - This article covers Flight chaos caused by software defect in space of a millisecond, report says and provides comprehensive coverage of the key details and implications.Thousands of passengers were delayed by the NATS outage An air traffic control failure that sparked widespread travel chaos earlier this month was caused by a "software defect" affecting the system underpinning UK air space management, the national air traffic service Nats has said.The problem happened "in the space of a millisecond", Nats said, leading to the system producing corrupted data.The failure led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected, with some sleeping on airport floors or getting stuck overseas.Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe told the BBC he would not resign, saying the software defect was "very, very obscure." "You can fly to almost anywhere from almost any airport at almost any time.If that stops, even for a moment, then you get huge disruption."My job is to make sure that we have this happen as infrequently as possible," he added.Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the disruption "completely unacceptable", while industry body Airlines UK is writing to Nats to demand immediate compensation for costs incurred.The incident prompted questions over the resilience of Nats' systems, and some airlines questioned the position of Mr Rolfe.There has also been anger from passengers about how much support they got from airlines, and about the fact that they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation because the regulator judges the situation was extraordinary circumstances.In an initial report , external , Nats said the software defect meant air traffic controllers had reduced information available, so restrictions were put in place to limit air traffic to maintain safety.The defect occurred at 10:00am on 8 September, but it did not become apparent this was a serious problem for another two and a half hours.The system restart did not start until just after 3:15pm, and restrictions on UK airspace were not lifted until 7:30pm.Flights in and out of the UK's main airports were affected, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Glasgow.The disruption took days to completely resolve because of the number of planes and crew left out of place.Mr Rolfe apologised to those affected by the disruption, saying Nats was "devastated"."Howeve

Summary: This article covers Flight chaos caused by software defect in space of a millisecond, report says and provides comprehensive coverage of the key details and implications.Thousands of passengers were delayed by the NATS outage An air traffic control failure that sparked widespread travel chaos earlier this month was caused by a "software defect" affecting the system underpinning UK air space management, the national air traffic service Nats has said.The problem happened "in the space of a millisecond", Nats said, leading to the system producing corrupted data.The failure led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected, with some sleeping on airport floors or getting stuck overseas.Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe told the BBC he would not resign, saying the software defect was "very, very obscure." "You can fly to almost anywhere from almost any airport at almost any time.If that stops, even for a moment, then you get huge disruption."My job is to make sure that we have this happen as infrequently as possible," he added.Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the disruption "completely unacceptable", while industry body Airlines UK is writing to Nats to demand immediate compensation for costs incurred.The incident prompted questions over the resilience of Nats' systems, and some airlines questioned the position of Mr Rolfe.There has also been anger from passengers about how much support they got from airlines, and about the fact that they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation because the regulator judges the situation was extraordinary circumstances.In an initial report , external , Nats said the software defect meant air traffic controllers had reduced information available, so restrictions were put in place to limit air traffic to maintain safety.The defect occurred at 10:00am on 8 September, but it did not become apparent this was a serious problem for another two and a half hours.The system restart did not start until just after 3:15pm, and restrictions on UK airspace were not lifted until 7:30pm.Flights in and out of the UK's main airports were affected, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Glasgow.The disruption took days to completely resolve because of the number of planes and crew left out of place.Mr Rolfe apologised to those affected by the disruption, saying Nats was "devastated"."Howeve