Plane passengers in the UK continued to struggle on September 9 when 177 more flights were canceled nationwide, amid the country's air traffic control agency urgently fixing a technical problem that they claimed was not a cyber attack, AFP reported.
Flight tracker Flightradar24 previously reported that as of about 8 pm on September 8 (local time), more than 1,050 flights to and from UK airports had been canceled.
Almost all of the canceled flights this time are at London Heathrow Airport, the busiest airport in the UK, FlightRadar24 wrote on X social network.
The head of the British National Air Traffic Service (NATS) Martin Rolfe affirmed "at this time, we have ruled out cyberattacks" as a cause. "We do not think it was a cyberattack," he said.
Mr. Rolfe said NATS will conduct an "extremely, extremely thorough" investigation into the exact cause of the incident. The agency warned on X that "it will take time to recover" after the interruption incident.
Before public reaction, NATS said: "We know this is very upsetting and apologize unconditionally".
British media reported that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander summoned Mr. Rolfe to a meeting today. Ms. Alexander wrote on X that she is "seeking assurance that lessons will be learned and that industry support systems are not capable of undertaking the task".
Heathrow Airport announced on September 9 that departing flights had resumed operations, after "technical issues" forced the airport to temporarily suspend inbound flights. However, the operating unit warned that "interruptions are expected to continue" and asked passengers to check with the airline before arriving at the airport.
Liverpool, Birmingham and Edinburgh airports are also affected, while Dublin airport said it has canceled dozens of flights. Ryanair announced that more than 65,000 passengers of the airline were affected and the airline has canceled more than 50 flights.
