An independent review into the August bank holiday air traffic control meltdown, which affected nearly 750,000 passengers, has highlighted a “significant lack of pre-planning”.
Flights were grounded across UK airports on 28 August after the ATC provider National Air Traffic Services (Nats) experienced a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.
An interim report from an inquiry into what happened found there does not appear to have been “any multi-agency rehearsal of the management of an incident of this nature and scale”.
These rehearsals are “best practice” and “regularly conducted in other sectors”, the inquiry panel stated.
The interim report, published by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), a regulator, noted: “The panel expects to recommend that the CAA should review and lead such multi-agency planning.
“This is especially important, as some relationships between aviation sector stakeholders appear to be adversarial.
“This is not to the benefit of passengers, especially in a crisis situation such as this incident.”
It went on: “It is clear there is a significant lack of pre-planning and coordination for major events and incidents that targets the alleviation and remediation of major incidents.”
Many affected passengers were required to pay upfront for alternative flights, food and accommodation and submit claims to airlines for reimbursement, despite airlines being legally required to provide these.
The inquiry panel described the financial cost to passengers as “very considerable”, but noted that the “stress and anxiety” was “at least as serious”.
Some travellers were stranded overseas for several days because of the number of flight cancellations.
The inquiry was launched by the CAA and is being led by Jeff Halliwell, who has served as a chief executive and non-executive director in roles across the private and public sector.
after newsletter promotion
Halliwell said: “This interim report sets out the panel’s work so far in understanding the root causes of the incident; the effectiveness of communications between Nats, other parts of the aviation sector and the consumers; and the underpinning regulatory regime.
“In order to produce effective recommendations, the panel has further lines of inquiry it is exploring in order to build a better understanding of how the aviation system can improve.”
The CAA chief executive, Rob Bishton, said: “This interim report helps with the understanding of what went wrong, what worked well in response to this, and importantly what action can be taken to improve the UK’s aviation system for the future.”
Nats was approached by the PA news agency for a comment.
