LONDON – A hearth that closed London’s Heathrow Airport has sparked probably the most critical disruptions to air travel in years.
Greater than 1,300 flights have been canceled and lots of of hundreds of journeys have been disrupted following the blaze at {an electrical} substation, whose trigger is underneath investigation.
Here’s a have a look at some previous incidents:
July 2024: Defective software program causes chaos
A defective software program replace despatched to hundreds of thousands of Microsoft prospects by cybersecurity agency CrowdStrike triggered technological havoc worldwide. Airways misplaced entry to their reserving methods, hundreds of flights have been canceled and tens of hundreds have been delayed, resulting in lengthy traces at airports within the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America.
August 2023: UK air site visitors management issues
A glitch at Britain’s Nationwide Air Site visitors Providers in August 2023 meant flight plans needed to be processed manually, reasonably than mechanically. A whole bunch of flights have been delayed or canceled on the peak of the summer season holidays. The NATS system had already suffered a number of software-related failures within the years after it opened in 2002.
March 2020: COVID-19 pandemic
As a brand new coronavirus unfold across the globe in early 2020, the world’s airports shut down. Many governments closed nationwide borders and imposed journey restrictions. By April, the variety of flights around the globe had fallen by 80%. When air journey resumed, it was with masks, mandatory coronavirus tests and different measures that made flying extra onerous and costly. It wasn’t till 2024 that world passenger numbers reached 2019 ranges once more.
December 2018: Gatwick drone sightings
Greater than 140,000 vacationers have been stranded or delayed after dozens of drone sightings shut down London Gatwick, south of the U.Okay. capital and Britain’s second-busiest airport, for components of three consecutive days earlier than Christmas. A monthslong police investigation didn’t establish the culprits or decide how most of the sightings have been actual.
Might 2017: British Airways IT glitch
A computer failure at a British Airways information middle compelled the airline to cancel all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on a vacation weekend. The airline blamed a power-supply subject for the incident which affected some 75,000 vacationers.
August 2016: Delta outage
Delta Air Strains planes around the globe have been grounded when {an electrical} element failed and led to a shutdown of the transformer that gives energy to the service’s information middle. Delta stated that it canceled greater than 2,000 flights and misplaced $100 million in income on account of the outage.
April 2010: Iceland’s volcano
Individuals around the globe realized how one can pronounce the title of Iceland’s tongue-twisting Eyjafjallajökull volcano (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) after it roared to life, sending plumes of ash and mud into the environment. Airspace over northern Europe was shut for a number of days and airways canceled flights between Europe and North America due to issues the ash might injury jet engines. Greater than 100,000 flights have been canceled, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers, at an estimated price of $3 billion.
September 2001: 9/11
U.S. airspace was closed to industrial flights on Sept. 11, 2011 after hijackers crashed planes into the World Commerce Heart towers, the Pentagon and a area in Pennsylvania. Hundreds of planes have been grounded and flights within the air heading for the U.S. have been diverted to Canada and Mexico. Flights started to renew two days later, however air journey was forever altered, with passengers dealing with extra rigorous safety, extra intrusive scrutiny and longer traces.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
