A British mother has said she may not get back to her nine-month-old baby ‘for over a week’ after a technical fault in UK air traffic control saw hundreds of flights cancelled and delayed.
On Monday, thousands of holidaymakers were left stranded after more than a quarter of UK flights were cancelled because of a fault which hit the National Air Traffic Services (Nats).
Nats confirmed the glitch just after noon on the bank holiday, and announced at 15:15 that it had fixed the issue.
But by this point many aircraft and crew were left out of place.
Among those stranded were Brits in the French town of Limoges. One of those was a mother who said she was unable to get home to her baby.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I am in a bit of a pickle as I have got a nine-month-old baby at home and this is the longest I have ever been away. I don’t know what to do with myself.
“If I think about it too much I’ll cry.”
On Tuesday, the transport secretary Mark Harper warned that the disruption is likely to last for days.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the minister said: “The last time there was something this significant was about a decade ago, so these things do not happen frequently.
“It is going to take some days to get completely everybody back to where they should be.”
He added that the government was confident the fault was not caused by a cyber attack.
Aviation data firm Cirium said that as of 9:00 on Tuesday, 5 percent of UK departing flights had been cancelled as well as 5 percent of arrivals.
People are being advised to check before they travel.
