Computer glitch grounds flights; UK AIRPORTS COME TO A STANDSTILL AFTER SYSTEM FAILURE.Byline: ALAN HARRIS FLIGHTS around Britain were grounded today after a computer failure at a key air traffic control centre. The failure at the West Drayton Coordinates: West Drayton is an area of West London in the London Borough of Hillingdon. By 1965, urban London had further expanded and almost all of the original area was incorporated into Greater London. centre in west London West London is the area of Greater London to the west of Central London. Although it is only ambiguously defined, it is one of the most economically active areas of London outside of the centre, containing significant amounts of office space along with Heathrow Airport and many of delayed departures from Birmingham, Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stanstead airports. It was the second failure at the centre in recent weeks meant that flight data normally produced electronically had to be prepared by hand. The system went down at about 6am and caused two-hour delays for passengers at Birmingham International Airport Birmingham International Airport may refer to:
An airport spokesman said: "We had a 5.30am flight due to Karachi at 5.50am but that didn't go and nothing else went after that. "Flights are now starting to leave but people have had a two-hour delay and there's going to be disruption for a while. "My understanding is that things have had to be done manually instead of on computer so it's going to take time to get back to normal, which is being reflected nationally. "But people have been patient and good-humoured which we appreciate at this time." A spokesman for Stansted airport in Essex said: "We are experiencing delays, although some flights are on time. "It's a similar air traffic control problem to the one we had a couple of weeks ago." The majority of flights at Manchester airport were grounded from just before 7am, with passengers facing delays of up to three hours A spokesman at Gatwick said the computer failure had briefly affected flights leaving the airport, but had not caused significant delays. A spokesman for Heathrow airport said: "A problem with NATC NATC Nevada Automotive Test Center NATC Naval Air Test Center NATC Nissan Advanced Technology Center (Japan) NATC North American Title Count NATC Nicolet Area Technical College (Wisconsin) computers in West Drayton just before 7am meant they had to go on to some sort of manual process. "This has had a knock-on effect and we are experiencing a handful of delays on departures of up to two hours on both long-haul and domestic flights. "Heathrow is still open." |
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