Systems failure grounds UK flights

[demnan]

A computer crash in the British air traffic control system today affected hundreds of flights and left thousands of passengers across the UK facing delays.
The problem was caused by part of the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) computer system crashing at 6am and being down for just over an hour.

Nats insisted there was no threat to safety but while part of its Flight Data Processing System was down until 7.03am, air traffic controllers had to delay the majority of flights leaving UK airports.

Internal UK flights and those into and out of Ireland were the most seriously affected. Nats said the backlog should be cleared "by lunchtime", though British Airways warned of severe delays throughout the day.

More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/airlines/story/0,1371,1230352,00.html