Breaking news - IT failure at Swanwick

[Whenurhappy]

Just breaking on BBC World:

BBC News - London airspace closed after computer failure

[kenparry]

Already up on Rumours & News.

[Wander00]

That's the snag with putting all one's eggs in one basket.......................

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

ARCC Kinloss to close...one National centre in Fareham..

so that's all eggs of all types in one basket.

[CoffmanStarter]

It appears to have been a 'glitch' with a Flight Planning Server ...

Originally Posted by NATS

Following a technical failure at Swanwick, the system has been restored. However, it will take time for operations across the UK to fully recover so passengers should contact their airline for the status of their flight.

Time to break out the Paper Progress Strips and Chinagraphs

[MPN11]

Agree with Wander00 completely. They can't even revert to manual flight strips and procedural control any more, as all the data is on electronic displays fed from the central computer.

West Drayton was bad enough, but at least had 'manual reversion'. SwanFork is a dreadful concept, made for purely commercial reasons ... with a little bit of "our electronic/IT people in UK are REALLY clever".

CoffmanStarter ... don't believe that option exists anymore!! I have seen "Strips to Manual" at WD when the strip-printers went down - that was bad enough!

[chiglet]

As I retired from Civil ATC, EFPS [Electronic strips] was coming in { a Spanish system I think} with a quote that it was 100% reliable.... and had no need of manual back up
Right!!

[Wensleydale]

I blame the Russian Submarine..... oops sorry - I've woken up the bring back an MPA brigade again.

[ORAC]

From 10:30 onwards... (Though it's all good)

[BEagle]

The Flying Prevention Branch really living up to its name.....

Glad I flew back to London Airport on Thursday night rather on Friday this week!