Lord Campbell of Croyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the technology and equipment now used by National Air Traffic Services will obviate failures such as that which required the grounding of aircraft in England on the morning of 10 April. [HL3776]
24WA
§ The Minister of State, Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)This is an operational matter for NATS. I understand the position to be as follows.
There have been two occasions recently, on 27 March and 10 April, when aircraft movements in UK airspace have been disrupted by unplanned computer stoppages. Both events occurred at West Drayton as a result of a software problem associated with an unusual set of circumstances connected with flight data.
NATS is conducting a full inquiry into the incidents to establish whether further adjustments are required to ensure the long-term robustness of the system.
Notwithstanding the incident on 27 March, the Flight Data Processing System at West Drayton achieved 99.96 per cent availability in the year ended 31 March.