UK air traffic control meltdown reportedly caused by military aircraft flight data

A military aircraft reportedly triggered the UK air traffic control outage that cancelled more than 2,000 flights and caused widespread airport disruption this week.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers were affected Tuesday after systems operated by National Air Traffic Services (Nats) shut down for four hours.

Four people briefed on the incident told the Financial Times that a flight plan submitted by a UK military aircraft contained “spurious” data that caused the Nats system to fail.

The report said the flight processing system did not have a dedicated backup while Nats was undergoing a major overhaul of its systems.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander summoned Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe to a meeting Wednesday and reportedly gave him a week to explain the shutdown.

The Civil Aviation Authority is also conducting an independent review.

Rolfe previously ruled out a cyber-attack and said the incident appeared to be something Nats had “never seen in 50 years of operation”.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has called for Rolfe to be removed, accusing him of “telling lies to save his own skin” and describing his position as “untenable”.

The Ministry of Defence denied any wrongdoing as an MoD spokesperson said: “We do not believe there’s any indication of an error on the part of the military,” adding that the Nats investigation remains ongoing.