Aviation mishap in the UK triggered by identical flight plan mismatch
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is currently investigating a technical issue that caused flight delays and cancellations on August 28, 2023. The issue was attributed to a software system glitch at NATS (National Air Traffic Services), resulting in duplicate identities of flight plan waypoints and forcing air traffic personnel to manually input flight plan information.
The CAA's investigation led to an independent review, which issued 34 recommendations aimed at improving system reliability and operational resilience for various stakeholders, including NATS, airlines, and airports. The CAA published a report on July 1, 2025, highlighting the progress made in addressing these recommendations.
NATS has completed many of the indicated actions, with the CAA expecting to validate all recommendations by summer 2025. Airlines and airports have committed to reviewing their practices for communicating with and assisting passengers during disruptions. The CAA is focusing on expanding its work on improving industry compliance and consumer rights, establishing an industry code of conduct and monitoring compliance through an extended program.
The CAA considers the disruption as falling under "extraordinary circumstances," and stranded passengers are "unlikely to be entitled to compensation for cancellations and delays" due to these circumstances. Nearly 800 flights that were supposed to depart the UK were impacted by the NATS system outage, with roughly the same number of incoming flights canceled.
If there is evidence that suggests NATS may have breached its statutory and licensing obligations, the UK Civil Aviation Authority will take any appropriate steps. However, no new information was provided about potential breaches of statutory and licensing obligations by NATS.
Martin Rolfe, the CEO of NATS, described the outage as a "one in 15 million chance" occurrence. Cirium, an aviation analytics company, reported this information to CNBC. The outage stranded thousands of passengers and in some cases, they were left waiting for several days to re-book alternative flights. Mark Harper, Britain's secretary of state for transportation, confirmed action has been taken to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.
The CAA's independent investigation details will be published by the end of September. The backup computer took over, but after reporting the same navigational data, both systems shut down, forcing air traffic controllers to take over. The issue was caused by a software system run by NATS suffering a glitch, and millions of passengers rely on air traffic control to work smoothly and safely. The CAA is working diligently to ensure that questions surrounding this incident are answered for passengers and the industry.
- According to the CAA's report, the future of the tech industry, particularly in air traffic control, is under scrutiny following the software glitch at NATS, which disrupted flights on August 28, 2023.
- As part of the CAA's focus on improving industry compliance, a code of conduct is being established to ensure tech companies like NATS adhere to their statutory and licensing obligations in the tech and lifestyle sector.
- Gizmodo reported on the travel industry's impact caused by the technology issue at NATS, where millions of passengers were affected, and many were left stranded for several days due to the outage.
- The CAA's investigation into the technology-related flight delays and cancellations on August 28, 2023, has revealed that general-news outlets, such as CNBC, have reported that NATS CEO Martin Rolfe described the outage as a "one in 15 million chance" occurrence.
