Flights disrupted after computer failure at UK control centre

Passengers are facing widespread flight disruption after a computer failure at the UK's air traffic control centre.

Nats said it was in the process of returning to normal operations after a "technical problem" at its Swanwick control centre caused delays and grounded some flights.

Problems were reported around the UK.

The government said the scale of the disruption was "unacceptable" and said it had asked for a "full explanation" of what had gone wrong.

This included delays at Heathrow and Gatwick, where departing flights were grounded for a time. Other UK airports reported knock-on effects.

It comes a year after a telephone glitch at the Hampshire control room caused huge disruption - one of a number of technical hitches to hit the part-privatised Nation Air Traffic Services since the centre opened in 2002.

Reported problems around the country include:

• Heathrow: Fifty flights cancelled. Others delayed but planes now landing and taking off
• Gatwick: Flights are now departing but still subject to delays
• Stansted: Flights still landing, no flights departing
• London City: Cancellations and delays
• Luton: All flights experiencing delays
• Bristol: Limited departures reported
• Luton: All flights experiencing delays but planes now leaving
• Edinburgh: No queues but passengers being advised to check with their airlines
• Glasgow: Some delays to departures
• Southampton: Experiencing ''problems''
• Oxford: Experiencing "some delays", mainly to services arriving from overseas
• Leeds Bradford: All flights out and most flights in suspended until 1900
• Birmingham: Some departures are being re-routed to avoid flying through London airspace
• East Midlands: Departures and arrivals delayed but passengers advised to turn up as normal

One source told the BBC the problem was caused by a computer glitch that co-ordinates the flights coming into London and puts the flights in sequence as they come into land or take off.

He described it as a "flight planning tool problem".

Travel body Abta encouraged passengers expecting to take a flight to contact their airline.

One source told the BBC the problem was caused by a computer glitch that co-ordinates the flights coming into London and puts the flights in sequence as they come into land or take off.

He described it as a "flight planning tool problem".

Travel body Abta encouraged passengers expecting to take a flight to contact their airline.

Flight-tracking maps show Friday's disruption

Vicky Lane, a passenger on a grounded London to Dublin plane at Gatwick said: "We've been stuck on a Ryanair flight... for over an hour.

"The doors are open and we're really cold. I'm not sure when we will be leaving."

Another passenger, on a flight to Paris, said his plane had "circled around the Lake District for half an hour before turning back to Edinburgh".

Ed Bott told the BBC he was: "Currently sitting on the tarmac. None the wiser. Waiting for news as to what's happening."