Flight chaos across UK airports caused by ‘software defect’, internal investigation says

An air traffic control issue which led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled was caused by a defect in the software that allocates codes to individual aircraft, an investigation has found.

A preliminary report into the incident on September 8 was released by the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) on Friday, which said that the issue was not caused by any “incorrect actions”.