( CNN ) -- At 35,000 feet , the orange glow of a European sunrise begins to pierce the horizon from beneath a tufted layer of clouds . Unfortunately , it will be only a matter of minutes before that glow transforms into a pupil-penetrating annoyance through the windscreen of our 777 . The irritating glare wo n't , of course , affect the way we navigate our way to London 's Heathrow Airport ; a complicated and well-engineered computer system using GPS positioning provides information to air traffic controllers . But what if this well-oiled machine breaks down ? Do we need to start worrying ? That was a question facing pilots in airspace over the United Kingdom on Friday , when Shanwick Oceanic , a part of the UK 's NAT system of air traffic control , developed a computer glitch . Shanwick is the airspace that most flights transit to or from not only Britain , but also from France and other European countries , covering airspace from south of Iceland to north of the Azores , and just west of France to almost the middle of the North Atlantic . So when Shanwick develops a computer glitch , air traffic arriving and departing into the United Kingdom is most affected . But while a malfunction affecting the flight of objects hurtling through the sky at 600 mph might sound scary , rest assured that Mom and Dad celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary are n't at any risk of colliding with another airliner en route . It just means they might be a little late arriving for their vacation . Airplanes that are already airborne receive priority by virtue of the fact controllers understand that only a finite amount of fuel remains in the tanks . As airline pilots , it becomes a matter of calculating whether our fuel on board is sufficient to fly a few circles in a holding pattern or divert to our alternate airport . Traditional radar is still available once the flight travels in range of a land-based facility . Departures , however , will be delayed until the situation is rectified or mitigated . So , why is n't there a risk of collision ? As it has been since the days of the DC-3 , the track system is a nonradar environment . Radar signals do n't have the capability of traveling out to the middle of the ocean , so before airplanes enter the North Atlantic track system , from either east or west , a specific speed is assigned along with a specific altitude . In other words , airplanes are separated both vertically and laterally based on their known performance . This is still the case . Before the latest computer technology became prevalent , oceanic controllers would track airplanes manually based on verbal pilot position reports at designated degrees of longitude . With the advent of more precise navigation , more precise onboard automation and more exact ground-based air traffic control systems , the separation limits have decreased , allowing for more flights between North America and Europe . All this means that airplanes can still maintain this separation even if the ground-based oceanic computers take a temporary vacation . How ? Because we are required to maintain our assigned altitude and our assigned airspeed . And since the actual tracks change daily according to weather and winds , the performance of all the participating airplanes will be affected exactly the same . When the current technology system breaks down , the solution is either to increase separation limits or just wait until it is fixed . Verbal position reports would be required because our onboard ADS-B system would n't be able to communicate with the particular oceanic facility . Unfortunately , stopping departures that will be transiting the airspace is the simplest solution rather than temporarily resorting back to the old methods -- hence the delays on departing flights that were experienced Friday . This of course raises the question of whether the global air traffic control system has become computer dependent . The simple answer is , absolutely . But it is also worth remembering that the technology has also increased efficiency . And , more importantly , it has added another degree of safety to air travel . With all that in mind , we are just going to have to suffer through the compromise of inconvenience when the technology breaks down . Or find another way to get to our intended destinations .
Air traffic control system for London airspace has technical failure Friday . Les Abend : Malfunction was inconvenient , not dangerous . Abend : The problem is that the computer systems are still being upgraded and it will take some time to get them back up and running again.