Two SIA flights from Singapore to London diverted amid major outage at Heathrow

SINGAPORE: Two scheduled Singapore Airlines (SIA) flights from Singapore to London's Heathrow Airport were diverted on Tuesday (Sep 8) due to a technical issue affecting air traffic control services at major UK airports.More than 150 flights across the United Kingdom, mostly at Heathrow, scheduled for Wednesday have been scrapped. This comes after 1,300 flight cancellations to and from the UK on Tuesday.The National Air Traffic Services said that the issue had forced "a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover".Heathrow said late Tuesday that departures had resumed, but warned that disruptions are expected to continue. In response to CNA's queries, an SIA spokesperson said on Wednesday that the affected flights were SQ308 and SQ318.SQ308, an Airbus A380-800 with 401 passengers and 29 crew members on board, was diverted to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in France and landed at 6.28pm local time. SIA said that it arranged for the passengers to be transferred to London by land.SQ318, a Boeing 777-300ER, had 203 customers and 19 crew members on board, and was diverted to Munich Airport in Germany, landing at 8.09pm local time. "SIA plans to operate the aircraft from Munich to London Heathrow once the necessary clearances have been received," it said.The return flights SQ319 and SQ321, which were scheduled to depart Heathrow on Tuesday, were cancelled."SIA provided affected customers with the necessary assistance, including hotel accommodation and ground transport, and rebooked connecting flights where required," the airline spokesperson said.Customers should go to SIA's flight status page for information on the status of their flights, SIA added.