Glitch grounds planes in Britain, thousands stuck

London, August 28

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Thousands of passengers were stuck on the tarmac all over the UK and abroad on Monday after planes leaving and flying to Britain were grounded following a “technical issue” that hit British air traffic control systems, officials said.

The UK’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said it had “applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety” across its airports. They did not provide any further information about what caused it or how long it would take to fix. The disruption comes on one of the busiest travel days of the year — with many people returning from holidays on the last bank holiday weekend of the summer.

NATS said a technical issue was affecting its “ability to automatically process flight plans” and they were working to solve the issue “as quickly as possible”.

“Our technical experts are looking at all possible solutions to rectify this as quickly as possible,” it said.

The NATS describes itself as the country’s leading provider of air traffic control services, which handles 2.5 million flights and 250 million passengers in a “normal year”.

British Airways said it was working with NATS to “understand the impact” of the issue, and said it will keep customers updated. Other airlines are also asking customers to check for updates.

Irish minister of state for transport Jack Chambers warned of a “major” knock-on impact on flights to and from Ireland as a consequence of the issues in the United Kingdom.