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Fri, 18 Sep 2026

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 Flight chaos caused by 'millisecond' software defect, report says

The failure led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected.

* A "software defect" caused an air traffic control failure at NATS on September 8, leading to over 2,000 flight cancellations and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected.
* The defect occurred in a millisecond and produced corrupted data, causing controllers to have reduced information available.
* Restrictions were put in place to limit air traffic and maintain safety, but the system restart did not begin until just after 3:15pm.
* Flights in and out of UK's main airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, and Glasgow, were affected.
* Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe said the defect was "very, very obscure" and that his job is to make sure such failures happen as infrequently as possible.
* Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the disruption "completely unacceptable" and demanded an urgent review into why the issue was not discovered and fixed before it caused chaos.
* Airlines UK is writing to NATS to demand immediate compensation for costs incurred and a credible plan to improve resilience.
* Passengers were angry about the lack of support they received from airlines, with some sleeping on airport floors or getting stuck overseas.