Plane Stupid

The recent report into last year’s computer glitch at the UK’s NATS (National Air Traffic Services) makes grim reading. More than 700,000 passengers suffered cancellations and delays in August 2023 due to computer problems. More than 2,000 flights were cancelled on 28 and 29 August, causing "chaotic conditions" at overcrowded airports with an estimated total cost of the incident to passengers and air operators between £75m and £100m. An engineer was unable to reset the system from home and arrived at work more than three hours after the incident began, a report by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said. Amongst the findings was a recommendation to review contingency and crisis response, but the Prufrock column in the UK’s Times newspaper has obviously delved deeper into the report. 

The Times column says “The timeline of the incident reveals how a series of meetings were called at different levels of command: Bronze meeting convenes; Silver meeting convenes…” which the Times describes as …”making it sound like a Second World War film.” However it was only after the third Gold call that the then-transport secretary was briefed, seven and a half hours into the incident. It wasn’t just the transport secretary that wasn’t kept in the picture. As the Times column points out “At least he got a phone call. Spare a thought for Regional and City Airports, owner of Bournemouth and Coventry airports. RCA found out about the crisis only when the company saw it on BBC news. One of the biggest regional airport groups had ‘no comms from NATS on the day of the incident’ the timeline reveals”.

Clearly, NATS had a crisis management structure and process, though whether this was suitable for such scenario is a question to be answered. And let’s bear in mind that this wasn’t even an evolving scenario, unlike a cyber attack or terrorist incident where the situation is constantly changing.

Having a crisis structure, processes and comms plans are a good start for any organisation. But they need to be rehearsed and perfected often.