UK airports record mass flight cancellations after NATS technical failure

LONDON — More than 1,000 flights were cancelled at airports across the United Kingdom following a technical failure at a NATS air traffic control facility, disrupting flight operations and leaving thousands of passengers affected.

Flight tracking platform Flightradar24 reported that about 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday, while a further 177 cancellations had been recorded by Wednesday, with nearly all of them involving London Heathrow Airport.

The disruption followed a technical problem at NATS’ Shanwick air traffic control facility, which affected the management of flights across UK airspace.

Flightradar24 said that by 1700 UTC, 625 flights had been cancelled at UK airports as airlines adjusted their operations following the technical problem.

Among the airlines with the highest number of cancellations were easyJet with 218, British Airways with 132, Ryanair with 41, KLM with 37 and Eurowings with 22.

Earlier, 425 cancellations had been recorded by 1600 UTC, involving easyJet with 137 cancellations, British Airways with 111, KLM with 26, Eurowings with 22 and Ryanair with 21.

As NATS systems began returning to normal, airlines continued to adjust their schedules, with nearly 300 cancellations recorded during the afternoon.

Flightradar24 said London Heathrow was listed by Eurocontrol as unavailable for arrivals between 1400 and 1600 UTC, with inbound flights holding or diverting.

Several individual flights were also affected.

British Airways flight BA169 from London to Shanghai reportedly turned back over Romania because of a technical issue before diverting to Cardiff.

American Airlines flight AA142 from New York to London, which had initially intended to divert to Dublin after holding, was later expected to land at Heathrow.

Philippine Airlines flight PR116 from Manila to Vancouver also stopped transmitting the emergency 7700 transponder code after flying at about 10,000 feet, with the aircraft reportedly expected to divert to Anchorage.

Flightradar24 said inbound flights to London airports, Manchester and Birmingham looked significantly different from the previous week as airlines worked to restore normal operations.

The disruption came as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also released updates on the runway overrun involving a 21 Air Boeing 767 in Miami.

According to data shared by Flightradar24, the aircraft’s nose gear and right main landing gear touched down at 158 knots ground speed, about 30 seconds before the end of the flight data recorder.

Brakes were applied 23 seconds before the end of the recording, when the aircraft was travelling at 146 knots. The left main landing gear touched down four seconds later at 134 knots.

At 15 seconds before the end of the recording, the brakes were released at 120 knots and the throttles were increased to levels consistent with go-around thrust.

The throttles were reduced to idle 11 seconds before the end of the recording, while the brakes were reapplied at 117 knots.

Seven seconds before the end of the recording, lateral, longitudinal and vertical accelerations changed, with the aircraft travelling at 96 knots.

The final recorded ground speed was 65 knots.

Flightradar24 said there was no indication in the reported data that the aircraft’s speedbrakes or thrust reversers had been deployed.