The UK’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats) has attributed a major disruption to air travel earlier this month to a software defect. The failure affected flights across several of the country’s main airports and caused widespread delays and cancellations.
According to the BBC, more than 2,000 flights were cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers were affected. Some travellers reportedly slept on airport floors, while others became stuck overseas as airlines dealt with the disruption.
Flights to and from Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Glasgow were among those affected. The supplied report does not identify the specific software involved or explain what part of the system failed.
The government had previously ruled out a cyber attack as the cause of the incident. The Ministry of Defence also denied a report that a military aircraft had been responsible for the disruption.
Nats is the UK’s air traffic control services provider, and its statement identifies the outage as a technical failure rather than a deliberate attack. The supplied material does not provide details of any investigation, planned changes to the system or timetable for further findings.