Air Traffic Controller states “The screens just went blank” at Heathrow Airport in London

Citing first a “computer glitch” and then a power failure at Stanwick Air Control Center near Hampshire, Heathrow Airport has taken the almost unbelievable action of essentially closing down the airspace coming into and departing from the airport except for those flights that must be landed at Heathrow due to fuel shortages. Sources are vague about the actual reason, although a power failure, no matter how extensive, should have no bearing on control systems which should have several other primary backups available to them. Industry insiders are wondering if there has been a cyber attack on the operations center supporting Heathrow to cause such a monumental failure of systems.

An unidentified air traffic controller stated “the screens just went blank”.

Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the entire world.  Air Traffic Control were able to land planes that were circling and low on fuel and allowed a few planes to depart. However, they now feel they have landed most of the critical flights and diverted the rest, so they are officially closing the airspace except for certain flights which will be allowed into Heathrow on a restricted basis. Officials estimate the airspace for the Southwest area of Britain will be severely restricted for the next 3-5 hours until the reason for the massive systems failure is identified and repaired.

Airlines warn that this could affect flights flying into or out of Heathrow for the next 24 hours or more. If you are leaving today for any international flight, check with your airline carrier as, even if your flight isn’t entering through Heathrow, flights leaving gateway airports in the US may be grounded and cause your flight to be delayed.