More than 1,000 flights were called off at airports throughout the United Kingdom after a technical breakdown struck a NATS air traffic control facility, throwing flight operations into disarray and affecting thousands of passengers.
Flight tracking platform Flightradar24 disclosed that approximately 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday, with a further 177 cancellations logged by Wednesday, nearly all of them tied to London Heathrow Airport.
The disruption stemmed from a technical fault at NATS’ Shanwick air traffic control facility, which impacted the management of flights across UK airspace.
Flightradar24 stated that by 1700 UTC, 625 flights had been cancelled at UK airports as airlines scrambled to adjust their operations in response to the technical problem.
Among the carriers hit hardest by cancellations were easyJet with 218, British Airways with 132, Ryanair with 41, KLM with 37 and Eurowings with 22.
Earlier figures had shown 425 cancellations recorded by 1600 UTC, spread across easyJet with 137, British Airways with 111, KLM with 26, Eurowings with 22 and Ryanair with 21.
As NATS systems gradually returned to normal functioning, airlines kept adjusting their schedules, with nearly 300 additional cancellations recorded through the afternoon.
Flightradar24 noted that London Heathrow had been listed by Eurocontrol as unavailable for arrivals between 1400 and 1600 UTC, forcing inbound flights to hold in the air or divert elsewhere.
British Airways flight BA169, travelling from London to Shanghai, reportedly turned back over Romania due to a technical issue before eventually diverting to Cardiff.
American Airlines flight AA142, flying from New York to London, had initially planned to divert to Dublin after holding but was later expected to land at Heathrow instead.
Philippine Airlines flight PR116, en route from Manila to Vancouver, also stopped transmitting its emergency 7700 transponder code after climbing to roughly 10,000 feet, with the aircraft reportedly expected to divert to Anchorage.
Flightradar24 said inbound flights to London’s airports, as well as Manchester and Birmingham, looked markedly different compared to the previous week as airlines worked toward restoring normal operations.
The disruption emerged around the same time the National Transportation Safety Board released fresh updates on the runway overrun involving a 21 Air Boeing 767 in Miami.
Data shared by Flightradar24 showed that the aircraft’s nose gear and right main landing gear made contact with the runway at a ground speed of 158 knots, roughly 30 seconds before the end of the flight data recorder’s readings.
The brakes were applied 23 seconds before the recording ended, at which point the aircraft was travelling at 146 knots. The left main landing gear touched down four seconds afterward at a speed of 134 knots.
At the 15-second mark before the recording’s end, the brakes were released while the aircraft was at 120 knots, and the throttles were pushed up to levels consistent with go-around thrust.
The throttles were then pulled back to idle 11 seconds before the recording ended, while the brakes were reapplied as the aircraft travelled at 117 knots.
Seven seconds before the recording’s conclusion, lateral, longitudinal and vertical accelerations shifted, with the aircraft moving at 96 knots at the time.
The last recorded ground speed stood at 65 knots.
Flightradar24 noted that nothing in the reported data suggested the aircraft’s speedbrakes or thrust reversers had been deployed.
