Flight chaos affecting hundreds of thousands was caused in ‘millisecond’ by software error
Passengers caught up in the delays at Heathrow airport last week. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPAView image in fullscreenPassengers caught up in the delays at Heathrow airport last week. This happened in the space of a millisecond.”Rolfe said: “The issue has been identified and mitigation is in place while a permanent fix is safety tested and deployed.”Nats said restrictions were put in place across the UK so that the system could be restarted.
- ▪Passengers caught up in the delays at Heathrow airport last week.
- ▪Photograph: Neil Hall/EPAView image in fullscreenPassengers caught up in the delays at Heathrow airport last week.
- ▪This happened in the space of a millisecond.”Rolfe said: “The issue has been identified and mitigation is in place while a permanent fix is safety tested and deployed.”Nats said restrictions were put in place across the UK so that the syste
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| Original publisher | The Guardian — UK |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/18/flight-chaos-affecting-hundreds-of-thousands-caused-in-millisecond-by-software-error-uk |
| Publication time | Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:28:16 GMT |
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Passengers caught up in the delays at Heathrow airport last week. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPAView image in fullscreenPassengers caught up in the delays at Heathrow airport last week. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPAAir transportFlight chaos for hundreds of thousands was caused in ‘millisecond’ by software errorUK ministers say report into incident leaves questions unanswered over why problem was not discovered and fixed earlier Business live – latest updates Gwyn Topham Transport correspondentFri 18 Sep 2026 09.28 EDTLast modified on Fri 18 Sep 2026 09.38 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleA software defect in part of the UK’s air traffic control system corrupted flight data “in the space of a millisecond”, leading to a six-hour outage and mass airline cancellations and delays across the UK last…
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