Doesn't "The Register" article imply that there was a combination of circumstances that prevented the usual responses to the failure of the flight data processing system (holding the database of filed flight plans) getting linked back to the central flight server (holding the radar data) within a critcally short period ? It sounds as though the failures of the flight data system are by no means uncommon but NATS is well rehearsed in getting it back on the road. Unfortunately a separate problem with the link resulted in busting the deadline to prevent the radar system complaining it was only holding stale data and forcing procedures with lower capacity to start.
I wonder which system has the "delinquent" line of code ?