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Air traffic control failure disrupts flights over Britain

13 December 2014 02:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Hundreds of flights to and from London were disrupted on Friday by a technical failure at England's main air traffic control center, which a senior government minister said was "simply unacceptable", APA reports quoting Reuters.

Flights in and out of Heathrow, which calls itself the world's busiest international airport, were halted for at least an hour, causing knock-on effects across Europe.

Heathrow said operations were beginning to resume, but there were also cancellations and delays at other London airports.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin demanded a full explanation for the glitch that forced authorities to limit access to British airspace at one of the busiest times of year.

A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the problem did not appear to be linked to any security threat to the United Kingdom.

It was the second such incident in just over a year to hit the National Air Traffic Service's hub at Swanwick in southern England, one of NATS's two main centers. NATS's other center is in Prestwick, Scotland.

Last December, thousands of travelers were delayed at airports across England when the night operating system at Swanwick failed properly to switch over to daytime mode.

NATS said late on Friday its systems were fully operational again and that it was still investigating the cause of the disruption. It denied media reports that a power outage was responsible.

McLoughlin said in a statement: "Any disruption to our aviation system is a matter of the utmost concern, especially at this time of year in the run up to the holiday season.

"Disruption on this scale is simply unacceptable and I have asked NATS for a full explanation of this evening's incident."