Louise Ellman MP responds to the NATS crisis
15 December 2014
Chair of the Transport Committee responds to the partial closure of London Air Space caused by a National Air Traffic Service (NATS) technical fault on Friday 12 December 2014.
Responding to the major air traffic control shutdown, Louise Ellman MP, Chair of Transport Committee said:
"I am very concerned about this major breakdown in UK air traffic control and the impact of the disruption this failure has caused on airports, airlines and passengers.
In such circumstances safety remains paramount, but going forward it is vital that we establish what happened yesterday, and what NATS must do in order to ensure the same problem does not recur in future.
The Committee will ask the Secretary of State these and other questions when he appears before us on Monday.*
I also hope that the Committee will call NATS and the CAA to give evidence to us, so that we can get to the bottom of what led up to this weekend's events."
* The Committee takes evidence on Monday 15 December 2014 from the Secretary of State for Transport, Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, and the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, Philip Rutnam on the Government’s long-term vision for the railway network.