Software Error Causes Flight Delays and Cancellations

In Germany, a bug in the Air Traffic Control System led to the cancellation of numerous flights at Frankfurt Airport.

It's not the first time that the German Air Traffic Control System has suffered technical problems, this time Frankfurt Airport was affected by an unexpected outage. The operator of Germany's largest airport, Fraport, reported the problem, informing immediately that there would be disruptions throughout European airspace and, therefore, delays in operations and cancellations of isolated flights.

The investigation into the technical problem revealed that it was related to a software glitch during the installation of the software.The problem was caused by an update to the Langen Control System. Although the problem was resolved early in the morning local time, all passengers were instructed that delays and cancellations were to be expected for the rest of the day before operations returned to normal. The Langen Control Center is responsible for lower airspace in Germany's central regions, including some of the country's busiest airports such as Düsseldorf, Cologne and Frankfurt.