Hundreds of passengers remain stranded at airports in the UK and other parts of Europe after a technical failure in the British air traffic control system caused one of the biggest recent disruptions to the country's air travel.
The problem, which occurred on Tuesday, September 8, in the flight processing system of NATS, the British air navigation service provider, led to more than 2,000 cancellations and affected hundreds of thousands of travelers. Although the fault was resolved, the consequences continued into Wednesday due to the massive backlog of delays.
The situation led to scenes of chaos at airports such as Heathrow, where passengers reported long waits, lost luggage, and difficulties finding accommodation. Some families said they had to spend the night sleeping on the floor of the terminals due to a lack of available rooms nearby.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority said airlines are obligated to assist passengers affected by cancellations and delays resulting from the incident, though it noted that there will likely be no right to financial compensation when the disruption is directly attributed to the NATS failure.
The British government has ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the failure and has asked NATS to submit a report within a week. The company's chief executive, Martin Rolfe, ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the incident.
