Air Traffic Control Issues

[MEL_Traveller]

Interesting article in The Times. Excerpts from it:
The air traffic control failure that grounded more than 2,000 flights earlier this week was caused by a military aircraft entering flight data into the system, according to a report.
More than 330,000 passengers travelling to and from UK airports faced disruption as a result of the four-hour system shutdown at National Air Traffic Services (Nats) on Tuesday.
Three days after the system failure, airline schedules were back to normal. Travellers will not receive compensation because the shutdown will probably be considered “extraordinary circumstances” under passenger rights rules, according to the CAA.
The Ministry of Defence said. “We do not believe there’s any indication of an error on the part of the military. This is subject to the live Nats investigation, so it’d be inappropriate for us to comment further while that’s ongoing.

Air traffic meltdown ‘caused by military jet’s flight plan’

Sources said the data entry led to a shutdown of the National Air Traffic Services system, grounding 2,000 flights, in an echo of similar chaos in 2023

www.thetimes.com

Pax won’t receive compensation, but airlines still had to provide duty of care… accommodation, meals, re-routing at earliest opportunity… which may have involved other carriers (although perhaps unlikely since everything would be full).

I’d expect the airlines to be seeking those costs from the responsible party.