Looks like ATC problems are catching

Fratton Fred

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7636330.stm

Flights to and from some UK airports have been cancelled or delayed because of a computer problem at the main air traffic control centre at Swanwick.

Airports across the UK have been affected by delays of flights using airspace in the south-east of England.

The problem has now been fixed and although services are said to be returning to normal, some delays are still occurring.

British Airways cancelled 35 domestic and European flights from Heathrow.

The computer problem occurred at 1600 BST and it is not certain how much of a backlog has built up and what knock-on effects the incident will have.

I wonder if the all singing all dancing NATS uses the same Thales system as Dublin.

therecklessone

Fratton Fred wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7636330.stm



I wonder if the all singing all dancing NATS uses the same Thales system as Dublin.

IIRC they use a system designed by Lockhead Martin.

Also, IIRC this is not the first time that NATS system has sat down.

Fratton Fred

therecklessone wrote: »

IIRC they use a system designed by Lockhead Martin.

Also, IIRC this is not the first time that NATS system has sat down.

They had a lot of problems when Swanwick first opened IIRC (As well as the usual overdue over budget problems you would expectr with a government contract), most were the typical sort of problems you would expect when implementing a new application of this size. There was also some concerns about the user interface as well i think.

I can't recall it crashing before, but i guess if you are not flying you don't take too much interest in these things.

FlutterinBantam

It certainly has crashed before as has the previous establishment at West Drayton.

Causes chaos as it's very difficult to switch over to the old "manual" system to look after whats in the air and expertise in that is diminishing with time as people retire. What happens then is that anything not already in the air is held on the ground,and domestic flts are first to be hit as there is a "viable alternative" ie surface transport and the distances tend to be shorter.

Nothing's perfect:P

Fratton Fred

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

It certainly has crashed before as has the previous establishment at West Drayton.

Causes chaos as it's very difficult to switch over to the old "manual" system to look after whats in the air and expertise in that is diminishing with time as people retire. What happens then is that anything not already in the air is held on the ground,and domestic flts are first to be hit as there is a "viable alternative" ie surface transport and the distances tend to be shorter.

Nothing's perfect:P

I remember the old system at West drayton had its problems, which was one of the reasons given for the mega bucks centre at Swanwick being built (and the unions I think, move to a greenfield site 50 miles away and get rid of the trouble makers).

That's pretty much what happened yesterday. on the lo0cal news they were saying that although departures were suspended for a short time, they implementd a 2 minute gap between flights at heathrow instead of the 90 seconds which is the norm. the ensuing chais shows just how busy that airport is and how badly a third runway is needed imho. (Maybe it was a conspiracy to get the planning permission approved:eek:)

highlydebased

Listening to ATC at Shannon/Dublin yesterday was interesting- many flights getting re-routed, the RYR29DC was given a slot time of 2347 to Warsaw- This was at 1530!!