Independent inquiry launched into National Air Traffic Service IT failure

CAA to launch investigation following Friday flight chaos caused by computer coding glitch

An independent inquiry will be set up to investigate the IT glitch at the Swanwick air traffic control centre that caused London airspace to be closed last Friday.

A computer coding glitch caused air travel chaos, affecting planes flying from and to London's major airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. National Air Traffic Service (NATS) blamed the technical failure on a coding error.

"The challenge is that we have around 50 different systems at Swanwick and around four million lines of code. This particular glitch was buried in one of those four million lines of code," was the official response to incident.

But due to the severity of the issue, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced it will launch an independent inquiry into exactly what happened.

"The CAA will, in consultation with NATS, appoint an independent chair of the panel which will consist of NATS technical experts, a board member from the CAA and independent experts on information technology, air traffic management and operational resilience," the CAA said in a statement.

The CAA will look into a number of issues, including root causes, how NATS handled the situation, and whether lessons were properly learned following a similar disruption in December 2013.

A NATS IT incident also disrupted flights into Heathrow and Gatwick during July 2013.

The inquiry will also review the levels of resilience in NATS' systems, and determine what further measures need to be taken to avoid further IT failures in what the CAA calls "critical national infrastructure".

Sources suggest that the report could be ready for Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin as early as next Monday. McLoughlin is also set to be questioned by a panel of MPs about the incident.

Speaking on Sunday, Business Secretary Vince Cable laid the blame firmly at the door of NATS, accusing the partially privately owned company of "skimping on large-scale investment" and being "penny wise and pound foolish".

However, in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, NATS chief executive Richard Deakin dismissed the argument that the issue was "down to a lack of funding", saying it was caused by "one error, or limitation, in four million lines of code".

Deakin also insisted that the IT error had not put passengers at risk because "processes and procedures are in place to make sure that even if there are glitches, everything remains safe".