Software glitch delays London flights

From...

June 22, 2000
Web posted at: 10:34 a.m. EDT (1434 GMT)

by Douglas F. Gray

(IDG) -- Flights are back to normal after some U.K. air traffic control computers went down Saturday for the second time in eight days. The failure caused delays at the three BAA (British Airports Authority) airports in the southeast, including Heathrow airport, one of the world's busiest international airports.

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) flight data processing system failed for three hours Saturday, according to Richard Wright, a spokesman for NATS.

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"This was not a safety issue," he said. "It didn't affect the radar screens, they did not go blank."

At Heathrow alone, there were 310 flight cancelations Saturday, and 133 Sunday, according to a BAA spokeswoman.

Computer glitches were still in evidence at Heathrow Monday. In the departure hall at Terminal 1, screens displayed at least one British Airways flight, BA778 to Stockholm, as cancelled, although it was operating normally. Boarding passes for the flight did not state a departure gate number however, leading to irritation among some passengers lining up at BA's customer service desk to inquire about the status of the flight.

On Sunday, passenger lines to the security check at one stage went all along the departure hall in Terminal 2.

Saturday's failure was caused by a software malfunction, while the error earlier in the month, which caused the system to shut down for 20 minutes, was caused by incorrect input by an adjoining air traffic control center.

"Saturday was caused by a software problem, not a human error problem," Wright said. "This is the first serious problem we've had in 15 years," he added.

The software in question is based on IBM's Federal Systems Software, but has been developed by NATS, Wright said. "There is similar (software) in place throughout the U.S. and in a few other countries as well," Wright said.

The system automatically produces flight plans, or "strips," which are used as a route plan by aircraft while in U.K. airspace. "A data problem caused the system to shut down, so the plans had to be manually produced," Wright said.

This led to delays, because they couldn't be produced as fast manually as by computer, so NATS was forced to reduce the number of flights entering and leaving U.K. airspace.

"Normally, at Heathrow, you'd probably have about 45 takeoffs in an hour. While the system was down, we could only allow half of those," Wright said. "And you can't stop an airplane that's on its way, so you have to call Paris and Rome telling them to limit their number of flights to Heathrow as well," he added.

When the air traffic computers in Swanwick, Hampshire, take over from the current systems in 2001 or 2002, they will continue to use current the data processing system, Wright said.

"It will still be in use until its planned replacement in 2007," Wright said.

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