MoD denies ‘military jet’ error caused air traffic control outage

The Ministry of Defence has denied making any errors amid reports that data entered by a military jet was behind the air traffic control system failure which threw UK airports into chaos.

A technical issue at National Air Traffic Services (Nats) on Tuesday led to more than 2,000 flights arriving or departing the UK to be cancelled, and the disruption continued into Wednesday.

The Financial Times reported on Friday that it had been told by four sources that a flight plan submitted by a military aircraft triggered events that led to the outage.

It claimed the entry caused a glitch within the wider air traffic control system that took hours to restart.

An MOD spokesperson said: “We do not believe there’s any indication of an error on the part of the military.

“Because it’s subject to a live Nats investigation, which is expected to conclude next week, it would be inappropriate for us to comment any further while that investigation is ongoing.”

A Nats spokesperson said: “We are continuing to investigate the underlying cause.

“It would be wrong to speculate while that work continues, and a full technical investigation will follow.”

The disruption has prompted calls for Martin Rolfe, chief executive of Nats, to resign.

Mr Rolfe apologised for the incident, which he said he took “full responsibility” for.

Michael O’Leary, the boss of budget airline Ryanair, called Mr Rolfe’s position “untenable” earlier this week.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs on Wednesday afternoon that she did not believe the air traffic control issue was “unavoidable”.

A Wizz Air spokesperson said the airline is “extremely disappointed” that a Nats technical failure caused the widespread disruption, adding: “Nats is simply not fit for purpose in its current form.”

In August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports when Nats suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.