Air India flight AI 131, carrying more than 290 passengers, was travelling to London Heathrow when problems with air traffic control disrupted operations at the airport. Instead of landing in London, the aircraft touched down at Zurich Airport.
After landing in Zurich, passengers initially remained inside the aircraft as they were asked to wait in the hope that the situation at Heathrow would be resolved and the flight could continue its journey. That plan, however, did not work out.
The flight was later cancelled, leaving passengers to deboard at Zurich Airport. The diversion turned what was supposed to be a routine Mumbai-London journey into an unexpected wait for hundreds of travellers.
London Heathrow Airport said arrivals had been suspended for the rest of the day, citing the need “to ensure the safety of our passengers and colleagues”.
Departures, meanwhile, had resumed, but Heathrow warned that the effects of the disruption would continue.
“We apologise to those affected and are supporting our local Nats team and airline partners as they work through the resulting disruption,” the airport said in a post on X.
Passengers were also advised to check with their airlines for the latest information about their flights before travelling to the airport.
The disruption was not limited to Heathrow. Other major UK airports were also affected, with flight delays and cancellations spreading across the network.
FlightRadar said the impact was significant, reporting that “more than 1,000 flights have been cancelled” at UK airports.
In a post on X on Tuesday evening, the flight monitoring service said inbound flights to London airports, Manchester and Birmingham looked very different compared with the previous Tuesday.
It said more than 1,000 flights had been cancelled following a “technical failure at a NATS ATC facility earlier today”.
UK air traffic control provider Nats later said that the technical problem had been fixed but warned that returning the aviation network to normal would take time.
“Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped,” Nats said in a post on X.
It added: “Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights.”
Nats said its teams were continuing to work with airlines and airports to deal with the disruption, as the technical failure continued to affect passengers and flight operations across the UK.
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