30 August 2023 , 13:39
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The safety of the entire aviation industry has been called in to question today by a worried expert – who fears a repeat of this week's air control system failure which sent flight schedules into meltdown.
Beverley Boden, a tourism and aviation specialist with more than 15 years’ experience in the travel industry, has reacted to the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) glitch. Caused by an 'unusual' piece of flight data it received, the malfunction led to thousands of travellers being stranded across the world.
The company has said "dodgy" flight data caused a serious outage, an explanation which has sparked concern for safety.
Ms Boden, a lecturer at Teesside University's International Business School, told the Mirror today: "Despite the technical error now being resolved, does this leave more questions than answers? How secure is the air traffic system and how safe is it with more flights taking to the skies than ever before."
Passengers queue to get through security at Bristol Airport after an issue (PA)She added: "There is little consolation from Nats, a global leader in air traffic management, who many will look to to respond to the crisis as to why and how this happened. This catastrophic and costly error requires a full enquiry, as many passengers will seek compensation while airline bosses look to government for answers."
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Nats insists its services are safe and says it manages around two million flights per year in some of the busiest and most complex airspace in the world safely and efficiently.
But Ms Boden's concerns are echoed elsewhere in the industry. Professor Kirk Chang, who has decades of practice in employee management and technology and lectures at University of East London's Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management, told the Mirror passengers are now likely to lose faith and trust in the aviation industry and its safety altogether.
"Passengers may start to think: Should I travel by airplanes or other alternatives in the future? Should I consider other traffic methods if it is possible to do so? EuroTunnel? Or in cars and on ferries," Prof Chang said.
A passenger stranded at Manchester Airport sleeps on a row of seats (Ioannis Alexopoulos/LNP)"Unfortunately, the ethos of 'good-enough' is still prevalent in the aviation industry. As long as the glitch is not salient and the tech stills works, people usually ignore it... My opinion is it is pretty bad (for the reputation of the industry). It is a catastrophic disaster to the aviation industry and related business in the same sector."
The fault happened during one of the busiest weeks of the year in the travel industry, as families are desperate to get home in time for the start of the school term. Many affected travellers are being told to wait several days for flights home.
Some have been forced to sleep on floors or makeshift beds at airports, or take long routes by land after their flights were cancelled. If the delay lasts more than five hours, but the service is not cancelled, passengers can generally opt not to travel but to claim a refund instead. It is unlikely that any of the people caught up in the delays will be able to receive compensation in addition to the refund rights.
The air traffic control problem sent flight schedules everywhere haywire (Bav Media)And Prof Chang has stressed passengers must follow up complaints to ensure they get what they are entitled to. He told us: "Reps from the companies shall consider the following actions immediately after the severe disruption:
- Regret: Sincerely apologise to those affected, their families and the community.
- Recompense: Explicitly state that a replacement, coupon or other object of comparable tangible value will be provided to replace the affected trips or accommodation. A line or website should be set up to ease the situation as well.
- Reform: Take responsibility and appoint a team to investigate the circumstances and recommend steps. Ensure the business and services will resume soon (regain customers' confidence).
Yesterday, a statement from Nats CEO Martin Rolfe read: "I would like to apologise again for our technical failure yesterday. While we resolved the problem quickly, I am very conscious that the knock-on effects at such a busy time of year are still being felt by many people travelling in and out of the UK.
"I would like to reassure everyone that since yesterday afternoon all of our systems have been running normally to support airline and airport operations as they recover from this incident.
Martin Rolfe, CEO of Nats, has apologised for the glitch, which happened on Monday (Geoff Moore/REX/Shutterstock)"Nats exists to allow everyone flying in UK airspace to do so safely. Our systems enable our air traffic controllers to deliver this service all year round. These have several levels of backup and allow us to manage around 2 million flights per year in some of the busiest and most complex airspace in the world safely and efficiently.
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"Very occasionally technical issues occur that are complex and take longer to resolve. In the event of such an issue our systems are designed to isolate the problem and prioritise continued safe air traffic control. This is what happened yesterday. At no point was UK airspace closed but the number of flights was significantly reduced.
"Initial investigations into the problem show it relates to some of the flight data we received. Our systems, both primary and the back-ups, responded by suspending automatic processing to ensure that no incorrect safety-related information could be presented to an air traffic controller or impact the rest of the air traffic system. There are no indications that this was a cyber-attack.
"We have well established procedures, overseen by the CAA, to investigate incidents. We are already working closely with them to provide a preliminary report to the Secretary of State for Transport on Monday. The conclusions of this report will be made public. I would like again to apologise to everyone who has been affected."