By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – According to media reports on Wednesday an Air India flight from Mumbai to London took an unexpected turn after a disruption in the UK’s air traffic control system forced the aircraft to divert to Zurich.
Over 290 passengers faced an unexpected halt after their London-bound journey was diverted to Switzerland.
The disruption came as a technical problem caused major delays and cancellations across the UK.
Air India flight AI 131, carrying 290 passengers, was headed for London Heathrow when problems with air traffic control disrupted operations at the airport. Instead of landing in London, the aircraft touched down at Zurich Airport, media reported.
The passengers initially remained inside the aircraft. They were asked to wait as there was hope that the situation at Heathrow would be sorted out and the flight could continue its journey.
The flight was cancelled, left the passengers to deboard at Zurich Airport.
The diversion turned what was supposed to be a routine Mumbai-London journey into an unexpected wait for hundreds of travellers.
The Air India disruption came as a technical problem in the UK’s air traffic control system caused major trouble across the country’s aviation network.
London Heathrow Airport said that arrivals had been suspended for the rest of the day. The airport said the move was taken “to ensure the safety of our passengers and colleagues”.
Departures had resumed. But Heathrow warned that the effects of the disruption would continue.
“We apologise to those affected and are supporting our local Nats team and airline partners as they work through the resulting disruption,” the airport said in a post on X.
Passengers were also advised to check with their airlines for the latest information about their flights before travelling to the airport.
The disruption was not limited to Heathrow. Other major UK airports were also affected, with flight delays and cancellations spreading across the network.
FlightRadar said the impact was significant, reporting that “more than 1,000 flights have been cancelled” at UK airports.
In a post on X, the flight monitoring service said inbound flights to London airports, Manchester and Birmingham looked very different compared with the previous Tuesday.
It said over 1,000 flights had been cancelled after a “technical failure at a NATS ATC facility earlier today”.
UK air traffic control provider Nats later said that the technical problem had been fixed, but warned that returning the aviation network to normal would take time.
“Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped,” Nats said in a post on X.
It added: “Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights.”
Nats said its teams were continuing to work with airlines and airports to deal with the disruption.
“This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover,” it said.
