The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is to launch an independent review into the technical issue NATS faced on Monday 28 August that saw hundreds of flights delayed and cancelled.
NATS’ preliminary technical report sets out the causes of the issue and actions taken to rectify and mitigate the effects. It found the incident occurred due to an anomaly that forced the system to stop processing flight plans. The system was closed to maintain safety and required manual operation to continue service.
The CAA will now independently review the wider issues around the system failure and how NATS responded to the incident.
If there is evidence that suggests NATS may have breached its statutory and licensing obligations, the CAA says that it “will take any appropriate steps” and set out future lessons to be learned.
“Millions of passengers every year rely on air traffic control to work smoothly and safely,” said Rob Bishton, joint-interim chief executive at the UK CAA. “The initial report by NATS raises several important questions and as the regulator we want to make sure these are answered for passengers and industry.
“If there is evidence to suggest NATS may have breached its statutory and licensing obligations we will consider whether any further action is necessary.”
Details of the independent review will be published by the end of September 2023.
Responding to NATS’ preliminary report into the air traffic control technical failure on Monday 28 August, UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper welcomed the report and the CAA’s independent review. “Thousands of passengers faced disruption as a result of the failure, with over 1500 flights cancelled and hundreds more delayed. I once again want to echo NATS’s apology to those who were caught up in it, with a technical fix now identified to ensure that such an incident does not recur,” said Harper. “I will chair a further meeting between NATS, the CAA and the aviation industry tomorrow to allow NATS to present their findings and consider initial feedback from airlines.”
The Transport Secretary will chair a further meeting with NATS, the CAA and the aviation industry on September 7 to allow NATS to present their findings to the industry.