A computer problem that shuts down an airport sounds kind of like the start of a terrible action movie. But five airports in the United Kingdomwere effectively shut down for several hours on Friday thanks to computers on the fritz. That includedHeathrow, one of Europe's busiest hubs.

So what happened?Just your basic computer glitch.

Airline security expert Chris Yates was not surprised.I thought, 'Not again,' quite frankly, Yates says.This not the first time this has happened. It happened this time last year. It happened a couple of years ago as well.

The air traffic control system simply isn'tcapable of standing up to thedemands of peak travel periods, according to Yates. And thats no small problem,because allair traffic controlin the UK is computer-driven.

The vast majority of all of the data is handled by this super computer," Yates explains, and "as the air traffic control system has developed, its become ever more complex."

The maintraffic control system, locatedin southern England,monitors all of the air traffic coming to and from a large swath of air space that reaches from theScottish borderdown to the southern tip of the United Kingdom.

That is completely separate from control at London Heathrow or London Gatwick. It is a control center that controls flights once theyve left airports or when theyre on the way to airports,Yates explains.Itnot only handles all of the voice communication between aircraft and controllers, but it also handles the eyes in the sky, if you will the visual display of where all the aircraft are in any given moment.

From PRI's The World 2014 Public Radio International

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A computer glitch paralyzes London's Heathrow Airport for hours