UK says a cyberattack was not the cause of air traffic problems that snarled flights

Airplanes are grounded at London City Airport, in London, on Aug 28, 2023. Britain’s air traffic control system says it has fixed a ‘technical issue’ that caused heavy delays and cancellations. — AP

LONDON: The British government said Tuesday that a breakdown at the nationwide air traffic control system that saw hundreds of flights delayed and canceled was not caused by a cyberattack.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the problem was caused by a "technical fault” at flight control operator National Air Traffic Services. The company said the outage had hit its ability to process flight plans automatically, meaning that for several hours the plans had to be input manually, a much slower process that meant fewer flights could take off and land.