Topic Lifecycle: Dormant
This topic is currently dormant in the news cycle. It was last covered on Friday 25 September 2026 and has not appeared in recent broadcasts.
Coverage trend (last 30 days)
How much coverage this topic got from each channel over the past month.
On screen
Stills are sampled automatically at 60-second intervals. Where shown, the still is the nearest available frame from the relevant broadcast segment and is included to show what was on screen during that part of the broadcast. A still may not correspond to the exact second of a quoted phrase.
Recent stories
The latest story timelines linked to this topic, newest activity first.
What was reported
A plain summary of this topic, built from the channels that covered it.
Coverage reported disruption to flights because of a technical issue at the Prestwick air traffic control centre in Scotland. Sky News reported that the disruption affected Scotland and Northern England, and that NATS said it was investigating the issue, had applied air traffic regulations to manage traffic demand for safety, and had engineers on site. Sky News cited NATS as saying the issue was unrelated to technical problems earlier in the month, apologising for disruption, and advising passengers to check with their airline. Channel 4 reported that flights in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England were disrupted for several hours that morning. In its afternoon summary, it said Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander had said engineers fixed the issue at Prestwick and that the disruption was deeply frustrating for passengers. Channel 4 also noted that 2,000 flights had been cancelled earlier in the month because of a separate software issue. The channels agreed that a technical issue at the Prestwick centre in Scotland caused flight disruption. They differed in the areas they listed as affected, with Sky News citing Scotland and Northern England and Channel 4 adding Northern Ireland. Sky News reported the issue as still being investigated, while Channel 4 later reported that it had been fixed, a difference consistent with the different times of their bulletins.
Key Claims by Channel
Tuesday 8 September 2026
| Claim | Channel 5 | BBC One |
|---|---|---|
| NATS experienced a technical issue in its flight processing system. | ||
| Multiple UK airports were affected, including Heathrow and Gatwick. | ||
| Hundreds of flights were cancelled. | ||
| Some flights were diverted to Paris and Amsterdam. | · | |
| NATS said a fix was in place by late afternoon and the system was starting to recover. | · | |
| The Transport Secretary apologised and advised passengers to check with their airline. | · | |
| This was the second time since July 2025 that a technical fault at air traffic control caused major disruption. | ||
| A previous major air traffic control failure occurred over the August bank holiday in 2023. | · | |
| Passengers were stuck on planes for hours, including at Heathrow and Bristol. | ||
| Ryanair's boss repeated his call for the head of NATS to resign. | · |
Wednesday 9 September 2026
| Claim | BBC News | BBC One | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|
| A technical problem at NATS caused over 1,000 flight cancellations on the first day of disruption. | · | · | |
| The NATS issue affected 15 UK airports. | · | · | |
| NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe apologised and took full responsibility. | · | · | |
| Martin Rolfe ruled out a cyber attack as the cause. | · | · | |
| Airlines including Ryanair and Wizz Air called for Martin Rolfe to resign. | · | · | |
| Transport secretary Heidi Alexander was due to meet Martin Rolfe. | · | · | |
| By the morning of the second day, 246 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and 33 at Gatwick. | · | · | |
| Passengers were stuck on planes for hours, with some sleeping on airport floors. | · | · | |
| Flights had resumed but knock-on effects continued. | · | ||
| This was the third summer of mass disruption due to ATC failures. | · | · |
Thursday 10 September 2026
| Claim | Channel 5 | Sky News |
|---|---|---|
| More than 2,000 flights were cancelled. | ||
| More than 330,000 passengers were affected. | · | |
| The Civil Aviation Authority will carry out an independent review. | · | |
| The government gave Nats a week to explain what went wrong. | · | |
| Passengers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation. | · | |
| Martin Rolfe, chief executive of Nats, has faced calls to resign. | · | |
| Flight schedules are returning to normal after severe delays on Tuesday and Wednesday. | · | |
| The technical issue occurred on Tuesday. | · |
Friday 18 September 2026
| Claim | Channel 5 | ITV |
|---|---|---|
| NATS published a report into the events that led to widespread passenger disruption. | ||
| The disruption affected around 300,000 to 330,000 passengers and over 2,000 flights. | ||
| The incident was caused by a software defect that corrupted the system allocating aircraft unique ID codes, and was unrelated to the August 2023 outage. | ||
| The NATS chief executive dismissed speculation that the incident was caused by military intervention. | · | |
| The transport secretary tasked the Civil Aviation Authority with conducting an independent review. | · | |
| UK airspace was restricted for six hours while the computer system was restarted. | · | |
| Airlines raised questions about why the defect went unnoticed, whether it was preventable, and why a single corrupted data file took down the system. | · | |
| The NATS chief executive apologised to passengers affected by the disruption. | · |
Monday 21 September 2026
| Claim | Channel 5 | BBC News | BBC One | Channel 4 | GB News | ITV | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The transport secretary ordered an independent review by the CAA to report within six months. | · | · | · | · | |||
| Michael O'Leary called for NATS boss Martin Rolfe to resign. | · | · | |||||
| NATS said a fresh Prestwick incident was due to a software issue and unrelated to earlier technical problems or the August 2023 outage. | · | · | |||||
| Air traffic regulations were applied to manage traffic demand and maintain safety. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| NATS apologised for the disruption and delays and advised passengers to check with their airline for the latest information. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said engineers had fixed the issue at the Prestwick Centre and described the disruption as deeply frustrating for passengers. | · | · | · | ||||
| 2,000 flights were cancelled earlier in the month because of a separate software issue. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| Manchester Airport reported 146 delayed flights and seven cancellations during the morning. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| Airlines UK said passengers and airlines deserved better after the disruption. | · | · | · | · | · | ||
| At least 200 flights were cancelled on the day. | · | · | · | ||||
| easyJet said the disruption raised questions about NATS's resilience. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| The Prestwick fault was discovered at around 5:30am. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| British Airways and Jet2 criticised the disruption caused by the Prestwick fault. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| The Prime Minister's spokesman did not express confidence in Martin Rolfe. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| The UK government holds a 49% stake in NATS. | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| NATS has had repeated major air traffic control problems, including a second incident within a month and further issues in 2023 and 2025. | · | · | · | · | · | ||
| The Prime Minister said the NATS issues were serious and needed to be fully investigated. | · | · | · | · | · | · |
This is a cross-channel consensus summary, not an objective account. Consensus can be uniformly wrong, or omit what only one channel covered.
Timeline
Where this topic appeared. Cells show coverage time and are darker when there was more coverage.
| Date | Channel 5 | BBC News | BBC One | BBC Two | Channel 4 | GB News | ITV | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday 25 September 2026 | — | — | 1m 48s 1.8% | — | — | — | — | — |
| Wednesday 23 September 2026 | 3m 26s 9.5% | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tuesday 22 September 2026 | 2m 49s 7.4% | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Monday 21 September 2026 | 2m 34s 6.9% | 1m 35s 1.3% | 15m 18s 15.4% | — | 3m 7s 6.2% | 1m 1.3% | 19m 32s 23.4% | 1m 42s 1.8% |
| Friday 18 September 2026 | 4m 20s 17.4% | — | 2m 59s 3.1% | — | — | — | 6m 48s 8.3% | — |
| Thursday 10 September 2026 | 16s 0.7% | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1m 8s 1.2% |
| Wednesday 9 September 2026 | 4m 11s 14.5% | 5m 2s 5.0% | 20m 37s 20.4% | — | — | — | 5m 13s 4.2% | 7m 10s 7.2% |
| Tuesday 8 September 2026 | 11m 40s 39.3% | — | 6m 15s 7.2% | 4m 28s 6.3% | 2m 34s 4.9% | — | 2m 43s 3.2% | 7m 12s 6.7% |