A millisecond-duration software defect in the UK's air traffic control system caused widespread flight disruptions affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers on 18 September 2026. A subsequent report raised questions about why the problem was not discovered and fixed earlier.
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UK ministers say report into incident leaves questions unanswered over why problem was not discovered and fixed earlier A software defect in part of the UK’s air traffic control system corrupted flight data “in the space of a millisecond”, leading to a six-hour outage and mass airline cancellations and delays across the UK last week, National Air Traffic Services has said. But ministers said that
“Flight chaos for hundreds of thousands was caused in ‘millisecond’ by software error” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/18/flight-chaos-affecting-hundreds-of-thousands-caused-in-millisecond-by-software-error-uk Error first occurred at 10am but major incident was not declared until 12.30pm, says report