One flight plan, one meltdown

A UK military aircraft filed 'spurious' flight data into the national air traffic control system. That entry is being blamed for shutting Britain's skies for hours on Tuesday.

“A military aircraft entering 'spurious' flight data into the UK's air traffic control system has been blamed for a meltdown”

Two thousand flights gone

Around 2,000 flights to and from the UK were grounded after a four-hour technical failure at National Air Traffic Services.

Passengers on the floor

More than 300,000 travellers were delayed or cancelled. Many ended up sleeping on airport floors as the backlog dragged on for days.

How bosses found out

NATS operations director Kathryn Leahy told industry bosses on an evening call that a military flight plan triggered the shutdown. The Financial Times reported the call first.

The industry was shocked

Insiders said the briefing landed badly because the 2023 collapse had a different cause: a rare software glitch inside the same flight processing system.

It should have been caught

Industry sources argue controllers should be able to stop a bad flight plan before it cascades. A single odd entry taking down a country's airspace is the failure.

The boast, one day early

Aviation minister Keir Mather said on Monday that air traffic control was 'well prepared' with 'increased resilience'. The system melted down on Tuesday.

“well prepared to respond to incidents when they occur in the future”

Found in the small print

Mather made the claim in a written answer to a Parliamentary question, unearthed by the Mail, about reducing the risk of widespread flight disruption.

Youngest minister since 1834

Mather was made aviation minister last September at 27, the youngest serving minister since William Gladstone, with no background in the sector.

All 34 fixes, ticked off

He said every one of the 34 recommendations from the regulator's review of the 2023 failure had been implemented.

The new recruitment law

December laws made it easier to hire controllers from abroad and from the military. Mather said that would cut the risk of delays. It did not help on Tuesday.

“This will increase resilience in the UK's Air Traffic Controllers system and reduce the risk of delays.”

Hubris, say the Tories

Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden said ministers cannot claim credit for systems that work and dodge blame when they fail.

“Labour are victims of their own supreme hubris.”

Why is nobody fired

Reform UK's Robert Jenrick put the cost in the billions and asked why no one has lost their job over another failure.

“Why isn't anyone being fired for yet another screw-up?”

The £1.4million question

NATS chief Martin Rolfe took £1.4million in pay and bonuses last year. He also ran the organisation through the 2023 collapse and is facing calls to resign.

A pattern, not a one-off

The 2023 bank holiday failure hit 250,000 passengers, set off by one small piece of incorrect data. A 20-minute radar outage last July cancelled 250 flights.

Airlines want him out

The bosses of Ryanair and Wizz Air are among those publicly calling for Rolfe to be sacked.

The riot act, not the sack

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander hauled Rolfe into Whitehall and, sources say, read him the riot act. She refused to sack him and gave him a week to report back.

Assurances that did not hold

Alexander told LBC she was assured this year that every recommendation was implemented and reviewed reports in March and June. Something still went wrong.

“something has gone wrong here clearly”

No compensation coming

The CAA says the failure is likely to count as 'extraordinary circumstances'. Airlines must look after passengers, but travellers are unlikely to get paid back.

Who actually owns NATS

NATS serves 15 UK airports as a public-private partnership. Government holds the controlling stake; BA, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic, Heathrow and staff split the rest.