How a remote worker’s password glitch grounded 7 lakh flyers in UK

An airport meltdown last August left hundreds of thousands of air travellers stranded in UK airports during a hectic bank holiday weekend.

An inquiry has now uncovered that the chaos was partly triggered by a password failure from an engineer working from home.

The technical hiccup had caused an estimated 700,000 passengers to endure a travel nightmare. With the system completely down, airports across the UK were unable to operate. Flights were grounded, unable to take off or land, creating severe delays that stretched over several days.

The disruption didn’t just inconvenience travellers—it also hit airlines hard, with the cost of compensation exceeding $120 million.

Here’s what happened.

The airport meltdown

The glitch hit on the morning of August 28, 2023—one of the year’s busiest travel days in the UK.

The malfunction caused the collapse of the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) computer system, leading to widespread flight cancellations and creating chaos among passengers.

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A Civil Aviation Authority inquiry revealed that, despite the high travel demand, IT support engineers weren’t on-site and were instead permitted to work remotely.

At 8:32 am, a Level 1 engineer at NATS’ Swanwick facility in Hampshire initiated diagnostics as soon as the system went down.

However, progress was slow, as the senior technical support engineer was working from home and faced difficulties logging in—the crash meant his password wasn’t being recognised.

The report noted, “Having exhausted remote intervention options, it took 1.5 hours for the individual to arrive on-site to perform the necessary full system re-start which was not possible remotely.”

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Chaos at UK airports

Four hours after the initial breakdown, the system’s German manufacturer, Frequentis Comsoft, was finally contacted. They quickly pinpointed the issue, but by that point, the backlog was immense, leaving some passengers stranded for several days, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Michael Bull, one of the affected passengers, found himself trapped on a plane waiting for clearance to take off, only to be informed of a delay lasting at least 30 minutes. Another flight, just ten minutes from Edinburgh Airport, was abruptly diverted mid-air, according to a report shared on X.

Holiday traveller Steph Wagstaff described her ordeal to Wales Online, saying, “We are still stuck, we have been stuck since arriving at the airport just after 7:45 pm last night. We only knew our flights were cancelled due to tracking the flight at 6:15 pm yesterday evening with our transfer being at 7 pm.”

EasyJet chief executive John Lundren told BBC, “Airlines were then left picking up the pieces and costs, which ran into millions.”

As per the report, the chaos forced airlines to issue over $126 million in compensation to affected passengers.

Inquiry chairman Jeff Halliwell told the Daily Mail that the August 28 event represented “a major failure” by air traffic control.

“It caused considerable distress to over 700,000 passengers and resulted in substantial costs to airlines and airports,” he stated.

UK airports bring new measures

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which led the investigation, has recommended a series of new policy measures to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh labelled the NATS system failure as “an unprecedented event” and expressed support for the suggested changes, particularly those aimed at bolstering regulatory oversight.

In a report by the Daily Mail, Haigh stated, “I’ve said before that I will be the passenger-in-chief and my priority is to ensure all passengers feel confident when they fly — that’s why my department will look to introduce reforms, when we can, to provide air travellers with the highest level of protection possible.”

Overall, the CAA proposed 48 new measures, one of which stresses the importance of having senior engineers on-site during crucial periods, even if remote work is generally permitted.

Rob Bishton, chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority, reiterated the necessity of these reforms, saying, “It is vital that we learn the lessons from any major incident such as this.”

With input from agencies