BBC 2 Tuesday 13th @ 9PM
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From: The world's biggest beach
BBC 2 Tuesday 13th @ 9PM
The day Britain stopped
BBC2 are showing drama documentary about the UK's overloaded transport systems.
How it all went wrong on December 19th 2003.
Programme website
Sounds not that far off from a normal day at the office.
BBC2 are showing drama documentary about the UK's overloaded transport systems.
How it all went wrong on December 19th 2003.
The day started with the first of a series of 24-hour national rail strikes, following on from a fatal rail disaster at Waverley, Edinburgh. The strike pushed even more traffic on the roads.
By early afternoon the M25 was at a standstill following two accidents, and across the country minor incidents caused pockets of ever-growing gridlock from Scotland to the West Country.
By evening, hundreds of thousands of motorists were stranded in sub-zero temperatures and the police were forced to implement Operation Gridlock; a contingency plan intended solely for use in a humanitarian crisis.
The gridlock meant passengers were unable to make their flights and hundreds of essential workers, including doctors, nurses, pilots and air traffic controllers, were unable to reach their place of work.
Understaffed and overloaded one air traffic controller made a tiny mistake with devastating consequences.
At 22:28 the disaster many had predicted finally struck when a passenger jet collided with a Czech freight plane over Hounslow, killing all passengers and crew.
By early afternoon the M25 was at a standstill following two accidents, and across the country minor incidents caused pockets of ever-growing gridlock from Scotland to the West Country.
By evening, hundreds of thousands of motorists were stranded in sub-zero temperatures and the police were forced to implement Operation Gridlock; a contingency plan intended solely for use in a humanitarian crisis.
The gridlock meant passengers were unable to make their flights and hundreds of essential workers, including doctors, nurses, pilots and air traffic controllers, were unable to reach their place of work.
Understaffed and overloaded one air traffic controller made a tiny mistake with devastating consequences.
At 22:28 the disaster many had predicted finally struck when a passenger jet collided with a Czech freight plane over Hounslow, killing all passengers and crew.
Programme website
Sounds not that far off from a normal day at the office.
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 712
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From: SE England
Joanne Griffiths, the air traffic controller:
Sounds scarily realistic then.
Glad to see I have 19 December off, wouldn't want to be working then
American midair drama earlier this year
walking into a room full of radar screens and people appearing to talk gibberish
Glad to see I have 19 December off, wouldn't want to be working then
American midair drama earlier this year
Last edited by Dan Dare; 8th May 2003 at 22:58.
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From Joanne again....
What, not even for an extra £15k? 
WF.
The air traffic control centres I visited were smaller than the London Area Air Traffic Control Centre (West Drayton) and not usually under as much pressure. I was told that the atmosphere at West Drayton was often very intense. Most of the controllers I spoke to said they would not want to work there.
WF.
