Man
Professional
- Messages
- 3,079
- Reaction score
- 615
- Points
- 113
Working from home turned into a collapse for 700 thousand air passengers.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published a report on a failure in the air traffic control system that occurred on August 28, 2023. The incident led to massive delays and flight cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers abroad. The airlines' losses amounted to about £100 million, including the cost of refunds, ticket reissuance, hotel accommodation and meals.
The problem arose at the height of the summer season, on one of the busiest days for air travel - Monday, which coincided with the official holiday. The failure occurred in the automatic flight planning system, which is the responsibility of National Air Traffic Services (NATS).
According to the CAA report, the elimination of the failure was delayed due to the inability to quickly confirm the password of the engineer who worked remotely. The failure was recorded at 8:32 am. On the spot, the junior engineer immediately began to check, but the second-level engineer, who was out of the office, was contacted only 34 minutes later. The architecture of the system has complicated the process of confirming its data.
To solve the problem, the engineer was called to the control center in Swonwick, Hampshire. It took another hour and a half. As a result, full-fledged restoration work began more than three hours after the start of the failure.
The commission noted that the manufacturer of the automatic flight planning system, Frequentis Comsoft, was contacted only four hours after the first signs of malfunction. At the same time, the company's specialists eliminated the problem in 30 minutes.
The regulator recommended that NATS ensure the presence of a second-level engineer in the office during periods of high load, such as in the summer. Despite the significant costs, the CAA stressed the need to consider the overall losses to the industry and passengers from such disruptions.
According to the report, more than 700,000 passengers were affected by the failure. About 300,000 experienced flight cancellations, approximately 95,000 experienced delays of more than three hours, and more than 300,000 experienced shorter delays.
Source
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published a report on a failure in the air traffic control system that occurred on August 28, 2023. The incident led to massive delays and flight cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers abroad. The airlines' losses amounted to about £100 million, including the cost of refunds, ticket reissuance, hotel accommodation and meals.
The problem arose at the height of the summer season, on one of the busiest days for air travel - Monday, which coincided with the official holiday. The failure occurred in the automatic flight planning system, which is the responsibility of National Air Traffic Services (NATS).
According to the CAA report, the elimination of the failure was delayed due to the inability to quickly confirm the password of the engineer who worked remotely. The failure was recorded at 8:32 am. On the spot, the junior engineer immediately began to check, but the second-level engineer, who was out of the office, was contacted only 34 minutes later. The architecture of the system has complicated the process of confirming its data.
To solve the problem, the engineer was called to the control center in Swonwick, Hampshire. It took another hour and a half. As a result, full-fledged restoration work began more than three hours after the start of the failure.
The commission noted that the manufacturer of the automatic flight planning system, Frequentis Comsoft, was contacted only four hours after the first signs of malfunction. At the same time, the company's specialists eliminated the problem in 30 minutes.
The regulator recommended that NATS ensure the presence of a second-level engineer in the office during periods of high load, such as in the summer. Despite the significant costs, the CAA stressed the need to consider the overall losses to the industry and passengers from such disruptions.
According to the report, more than 700,000 passengers were affected by the failure. About 300,000 experienced flight cancellations, approximately 95,000 experienced delays of more than three hours, and more than 300,000 experienced shorter delays.
Source
