Several flights grounded at Dublin airport

Several flights were grounded at Dublin airport yesterday and four flights were recalled following air traffic control computer problems in London.

Flights to London and other European cities were grounded for an hour yesterday morning after a computer failure at National Air Traffic Services centre at West Drayton in west London.

Four flights, two coming from London to Dublin and two departing Dublin were recalled after they had taken off due to the failure.

The computer system at West Drayton, which provides flight progress information for controllers, failed at 9.30am. The cause of the failure is still being investigated.

Passengers at Dublin airport also experienced a knock-on effect with half-hour delays on flights to London and hour-long delays on flights to other European cities during the day.

A spokeswoman for Aer Lingus said several of their flights were grounded for an hour, but those that were already in the air were unaffected by the failure.

British Airways cancelled 17 round-trip flights from Heathrow and seven from Gatwick, including flights to Paris, Nice and Madrid.

A serious computer problem at West Drayton in the summer of 2000 led to severe delays to flights.

There was another computer failure there in June last year, but it resulted in only short delays.