A major disruption in UK air traffic occurred in early September due to a software error that lasted just one millisecond, according to the British National Air Traffic Control Service (NATS), which announced the incident on September 18.
The investigation revealed the problem stemmed from incorrect data processing within the planning system. Specifically, the program suspended the execution of a manual request to assign an aircraft code and switched to a higher priority task. After this point, the process failed to resume correctly, resulting in corrupted output data and subsequent failures in updating flight information.
“All this happened in a millisecond,” NATS emphasized.
A technical issue at London’s air traffic control center required specialists to reboot the NAS system and re-download flight data, leading to widespread flight restrictions across the entire UK.
Separately, Super Typhoon Ragasa caused significant disruptions in southern China. Shopping malls, casinos, and universities were closed in several megacities, though tourist interest remained unaffected. The typhoon incident occurred on September 8, with at least 625 flights canceled nationwide. Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Birmingham airports were among the most affected, with easyJet canceling approximately 200 flights and British Airways reporting over 100 cancellations.
