# Airlines demand action after second air traffic control issue in a fortnight

By Beverley Griffiths — 2026-09-21

Beverley Griffiths, senior lecturer in security and resilience at Bucks New University, is keen to see how systems respond after a second air traffic control issue in less than two weeks caused further flight disruption.

She said: “The latest disruption highlights the challenge of maintaining resilience in complex, highly interconnected systems.

“While NATS has confirmed that this incident is unrelated to the technical issue earlier this month, having two significant disruptions within a relatively short period will inevitably raise questions about how critical infrastructure is designed to withstand and recover from unexpected failures.

“It is important not to draw conclusions about the cause of this latest incident before the investigation is complete.

“However, from a resilience perspective, the focus should be on understanding what happened, how effectively the system responded and whether there are lessons that could reduce the impact of future disruption.

“Resilience is not about expecting complex systems never to fail. It is about having the capacity to respond, maintain critical functions and recover as quickly as possible when something goes wrong. That includes contingency arrangements, redundancy, effective communication and learning from previous incidents.

“For passengers, another disruption is frustrating, particularly for those already affected by recent events. The priority now is to restore services safely, support those affected and ensure that the lessons from both incidents are properly understood and acted upon.”

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