Overview
- A lightning strike on Thursday evening damaged air traffic control equipment at London Luton, forcing a suspension of arrivals and departures for about 95 minutes from roughly 5:40pm to 7:15pm.
- NATS and the airport say around 30 services were affected, with multiple flights cancelled or diverted to Gatwick, Stansted, East Midlands and Newcastle and some passengers left to arrange onward travel.
- Two Wizz Air aircraft declared low-fuel emergency squawks while holding near London, used the 7700 code to signal an emergency, diverted to Gatwick and Stansted and landed safely with no reported injuries.
- Ground technicians repaired the fault and operations resumed, but airlines expect residual delays and some cancellations as they rebalance aircraft and crews to recover schedules.
- The disruption occurred during a Met Office thunderstorm warning that caused flash flooding around the airport, and regulators plus airlines have opened routine reviews that may examine ATC resilience and diversion procedures.