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Flights disrupted again in Scotland and northern England by air traffic control 'technical issue'

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Cite

Duell, M. (2026, September 21). Flights disrupted again in Scotland and northern England by air traffic control 'technical issue'. Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16147749/Flights-disrupted-Scotland-northern-England-air-traffic-control-technical-issue.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Daily Mail · collected 2026-09-21 · by Mark Duell

Quick Summary

This morning, flights were disrupted across Scotland and northern England due to a technical issue at an air traffic control center operated by National Air Traffic Services (NATS) in Prestwick. Airlines including Ryanair, easyJet, British Airways, and Highlands and Islands Airports Limited reported delays or cancellations, advising passengers to check with their airlines for updates. The incident is separate from a similar disruption that occurred two weeks ago, which led to over 2,000 flight cancellations at major airports like Heathrow and Gatwick.
Written by AI on 2026-09-21, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

The UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) caused over 2,000 flight cancellations and widespread disruption across British airports on September 8, 2026, due to a millisecond software defect. The glitch affected hundreds of thousands of passengers and led to an estimated loss of millions for airlines as they refunded customers and rescheduled flights. This incident follows two previous major outages in the UK since summer 2023, increasing pressure on NATS CEO Martin Rolfe who faces calls to resign. Airlines like Ryanair are demanding action from regulators, while transport minister Heidi Alexander ordered an independent review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to investigate the issue further.

Written for “Air Traffic Control Software Glitch Causes Chaos” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 23 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Air Traffic Control Software Glitch Causes Chaos
Technology · 24 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 9 claims Outlet record 64/100
BBC News
Hedges 0 of 4 claims Outlet record 68/100
“The articles describe different incidents: one about a software glitch causing widespread travel chaos earlier in the month, and another about a technical issue disrupting flights specifically in Scotland and northern England.”
The Guardian
Hedges 1 of 20 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles describe different incidents, one a six-hour outage affecting the UK widely and another a technical issue specifically impacting Scotland and northern England.”
The Straits Times
Hedges 0 of 13 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The first article describes an outage caused by a software defect last week, while the second reports on a separate technical issue at a different time.”
South China Morning Post
Hedges 0 of 5 claims Outlet record 63/100
“The articles describe different disruptions on separate dates, with one specifically mentioning it was 'unrelated' to the earlier incident.”
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 24 claims Outlet record 64/100
“Article A describes a past incident causing widespread flight cancellations, while Article B reports on a current disruption affecting Scotland and northern England at an air traffic control center.”
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 28 claims Outlet record 64/100
“The articles describe different incidents, one a past cancellation due to software defect and another ongoing disruption due to a technical issue at an air traffic control center.”
Toronto Star
Hedges 0 of 2 claims Outlet record 64/100
“The articles describe different incidents, one from September 8th and another on September 21st, each with distinct impacts.”
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 21 claims Outlet record 64/100
Evening Standard
Hedges 2 of 18 claims Outlet record 64/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
24
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 24 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
68/100
Daily Mail's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
24
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-21 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Daily Mail · 8757 article(s) · 21 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 21 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Mark Duell
59 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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Also by Mark Duell
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 59 articles by Mark Duell →

Topics

Ireland NATS Ryanair Scotland easyJet

Subjects

NATS ORG · 10× Scotland GPE · 3× Ireland GPE · 2× Ryanair ORG · 2× easyJet ORG · 2× Daily Mail ORG · 1× England GPE · 1× Google ORG · 1× National Air Traffic Services ORG · 1× Prestwick GPE · 1×

Narrative

Our friendly LCY colleagues are in the terminal today as usual to help your journey run smoothly.' Highlands and Islands Airports Limited warned flights were being impacted across all the airports the company operates - including Dundee, Inverness and Islay.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-21
🔮 Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling to/from the UK and Ireland on Mon 21 Sep should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.'

Claims (24 extracted, 0 hedged)

- See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Flights were disrupted across Scotland and northern England this morning because of a 'technical issue' at an air traffic control centre. asserted
Flights → see → centre
A National Air Traffic Services (NATS) spokesman said: 'Our engineers are continuing to investigate the issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland. ' asserted
engineers → say → Scotland
Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay. asserted
flights → head → delay
'Passengers should check with their airlines. asserted
Passengers → check → airlines
We apologise for the disruption.' asserted
We → apologise → disruption
A Ryanair statement said there were 'delays to/from the UK' today 'due to yet another NATS Air Traffic Control IT equipment failure'. asserted
statement → say → failure
The airline added: 'We have been advised of a NATS air traffic control equipment failure today affecting the airspace above Scotland/Northern England. ' asserted
We → add → Scotland
As a result, we expect some delays to flights to/from the UK and Ireland. asserted
we → expect → UK
Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling to/from the UK and Ireland on Mon 21 Sep should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.' asserted
passengers → notify → flight
An easyJet spokesman said: 'A Nats Air Traffic Control system failure in its Prestwick Centre is causing delays to flights with some unable to operate. ' asserted
failure → say → some
This, once again, calls into question the resilience of Nats' systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.' asserted
This → call → failures
And a British Airways spokesman said: 'Yet another technical fault with NATS means some of our customers are likely to experience disruption to their travel plans today. asserted
some → say → plans
This is disappointing, and whilst it is an issue that is entirely out of our control, we're doing everything we can to limit the impact on customers and are keeping them updated.' asserted
we → do → them
A London City Airport spokesman said: 'We are experiencing some disruption due to an issue at NATS Prestwick. asserted
We → say → Prestwick
We are monitoring the situation closely and working with NATS as they resolve the issue. asserted
they → monitor → issue
'If you're travelling today, please check with your airline for the latest information on your flight. asserted
you → travel → flight
Our friendly LCY colleagues are in the terminal today as usual to help your journey run smoothly.' Highlands and Islands Airports Limited warned flights were being impacted across all the airports the company operates - including Dundee, Inverness and Islay. asserted
company → help → Dundee
It said: 'Due to a technical issue at Prestwick, flight schedules are currently being impacted across all our airports. asserted
schedules → say → airports
It comes two weeks after an air traffic control issue on September 8 led to more than 2,000 flights being cancelled at airports including London Heathrow and Gatwick. asserted
flights → come → Heathrow
Passengers wait to take off on an easyJet flight this morning as services are delayed again A preliminary investigation by NATS found this was caused by a fault in the software that allocates codes to individual aircraft – and not by 'any incorrect actions'. asserted
that → wait → actions
The fault caused flights both in and out of the UK to be axed - impacting hundreds of thousands of passengers with disruption continuing into the following day. asserted
disruption → cause → day
Under-fire Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe faced calls to resign and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the disruption was 'completely unacceptable'. asserted
disruption → face → calls
Last July, a 'radar-related issue' caused an air traffic control failure which disrupted thousands of passengers and forced the cancellation of more than 160 flights. asserted
which → relate → flights
In August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports due to a NATS technical glitch while processing a flight plan. asserted
flights → suffer → plan
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