It's Not Gnats It's NATS (2)

 This Is What fbb Wrote

fbb began to write this blog as an item for a weekend Variety posting - but the whole topic proved more "challenging", hence a rethink. Here's the beginning of the  "Variety" piece.

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NATS Not Natty OR ...

... Isn't Technology Wonderful?

What Happened

A processing system fault hit the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) headquarters on Tuesday.

The system issue forced airports to limit flights and suspend some arrivals.

NATS bosses ruled out a cyber attack as the cause of the failure.

Chief executive Martin Rolfe admitted that fixing the glitch took longer than hoped.

Overall Impact

Over 1,300 flights were cancelled on Tuesday.

Hundreds more flights were scrapped on Wednesday as the system struggles to recover.

Total cancellations have pushed past 1,900 flights.

Major hubs like Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester face heavy delays and cancellations.

Passengers are advised to check with their airlines before travelling to airports.

Official Response

NATS boss Martin Rolfe apologized to affected passengers and took full responsibility.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander summoned Rolfe for an urgent meeting.

Government officials called the disruption unacceptable and pushed for system improvements.

It is hard to know what to say! But when fbb's laptop has a funny turn, he can annex Mrs fbb's lap top, plug it in to all his stuff and continue with whatever project he has in progress.

Surely NATS should have a second huge laptop, preferably in somewhere like Inverness, that can be plugged in straightaway if the Southampton huge laptop throws a wobbly - which it seems to do every year or so.

Some folk want Martin ...

... to resign, presumably because he couldn't find his sonic screwdriver to instigate a miracle repair, which therefore "took longer than hoped." Sounds a bit like fbb's attempts to repair today's technology.

The person or persons who should fall on their technological sword are surely those who authorised a system with inadequate back-up.

But it was far more complicated than that!

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And here is attempt No 2

The Full (?) Story From NATS Website

Statement at 13.46 on 8 September 2026

We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures. Our engineers are on site and we will provide an update as soon as we can. We apologise for the delay this will cause to journeys, passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight. We will provide updates on www.nats.aero and on X – @NATS.

So just a minor technical problem, then?

Statement at 15.25 on 8 September 2026

We have identified that the issue was in our flight processing system. Our engineers are on site and working urgently to resume normal operations as quickly as possible. We recognise the ongoing disruption to travel, for which we sincerely apologise. Flights are still departing and airspace is open, but recovery will take some time. We will provide further updates as soon as possible.

Passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline. We will provide further updates as soon as we have confirmed information, at www.nats.aero and on X at @NATS.

Flights are still departing? Really? How many?

Statement at 16.40 on 8 September 2026

We have implemented a fix and our flight system is starting to recover. We are continuing to work closely with our airline and airport customers on recovery. We apologise sincerely for the disruption to people’s journeys today and they should continue to check with their airline.

So it is a national problem and will spill over to tomorrow.

Starting to recover? The passengers sleeping on the floor might not appreciate the pace of recovery!

Statement at 19.30 on 8 September 2026

Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped. Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights. We are truly sorry for the ongoing flight disruption. We know this is hugely frustrating and apologise unreservedly. Passengers should continue to check with their airline.

And it has been harder to "ackle" that we implied earlier.

Statement at 22.10 on 8 September 2026

Work is continuing to assist airlines and airports recover from today’s disruption. This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover. We apologise again for the disruption caused.

Passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight tonight or tomorrow.

So it is a national problem and will spill over to tomorrow.

Statement at 12:55 on 9 September 2026

Our operations are stable and we continue to work closely with airlines and airports to support their recovery from the ongoing disruption to their operations. We would also like to reiterate our apology to all those affected – passengers, airlines and airports – by our system issue yesterday.

While our immediate focus is on safely managing today’s flights, a full investigation will be conducted to establish what happened and identify any further action needed.

As we know, planes and crew are in the wrong place, planes need fuel and maintenance and crew need their statutory break - recovery is a tortuous process.

BUT ...

... is this the whole truth? Some journalists were not so sure!

The report below has been expurgated by fbb.

Flight data from a single military aircraft caused the air traffic control outage that left thousands of planes grounded and disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands, it has reportedly been claimed.

It is understood the Ministry of Defence does not believe there is any indication of an error on the part of the military.

Well the MOD would say that, wouldn't they. "If in doubt deny everything!"

Four people briefed on Tuesday's incident reportedly said the flight plan submitted by the aircraft triggered the series of events that led to chaos at airports across the UK..

After the outage happened, air traffic control took hours — and several attempts — to restart, the people reportedly said. 

Several attempts to restart? Good technology, innit? As they say, this technology is started by a crank!

This comes after NATS promised airline bosses that a rogue flight plan would not derail the system again after a similar disaster in 2023 which saw thousands of flights grounded.

And compensation?

The tens of thousands of passengers impacted by the glitch are unlikely to be entitled to compensation, a spokesperson for the UK Civil Aviation Authority regulator has said. They said the outage was likely to be seen as an "extraordinary circumstance" under passenger rights rules.

They said this means that "although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident".

Repeat Thought from fbb!

Surely NATS should have a second huge laptop, preferably in somewhere like Inverness, that can be plugged in straightaway if the Southampton huge laptop throws a wobbly - which it seems to do every year or so.

There have been FOUR failures, all disrupting flights, in THREE years! 

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Airport Graphics Identified

1. Heathrow 

2. City 

3. Gatwick

4. Stansted

5. Luton

6. Southend

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Lights Become Lanterns

The lanterns are more effective when the darkness is darker!

But the camera still makes the lanterns too bright.

They are too big, of course, but you can now see the illumination in the windows of the square tower and the cottages, the latter suffering from a landslip!. But fbb has had another idea.

Actually two ideas!

That's not bad; he's had two ideas in one week!

 Next Callerton Confusion blog : Weds 16 Sept