{"id":622535,"date":"2026-09-12T15:04:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T15:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622535\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T15:04:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T15:04:35","slug":"healthcare-worker-on-ryanair-flight-describes-nightmare-trying-to-fly-to-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622535\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthcare worker on Ryanair flight describes ‘nightmare’ trying to fly to Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of flights in the UK have been impacted by a major ‘technical issue’ today<\/p>\n

Press Association Reporters and Darragh Murphy<\/p>\n

20:04, 08 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Josie Donoghue had to get off her flight to Ireland after spending three hours on the runway(Image: Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hundreds of flights departing the UK continue to be disrupted by an air traffic control “technical issue”<\/a>, the UK’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats) has confirmed.<\/p>\n

Around a dozen of the UK’s major airports have been impacted by the disruptions; with London Heathrow, Manchester Airport, London Gatwick and Liverpool Airport all affected.<\/p>\n

The technical issue has been ongoing for several hours and while progress has been made in resolving the problem, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander warned that “it will take time to fully resume flights, so continue to check with airlines.”<\/p>\n

Josie Donoghue had to get off her flight to Ireland after spending three hours on the runway, and said that getting through Gatwick Airport<\/a> was like “trying to get out of Alcatraz”.<\/p>\n

The healthcare worker boarded the Ryanair<\/a> plane to Shannon at around 3pm and said that “everything seemed fine” until passengers were informed the flight would be delayed due to an issue with air traffic control.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Passengers at Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal in Crawley, West Sussex, after flights were cancelled on Tuesday because of a UK air traffic control issue(Image: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Ms Donoghue said the delay then went “on and on”, adding: “And then I thought, OK they\u2019re not giving us any clear information. It was like they keep saying they\u2019re troubleshooting, they\u2019re doing this, they\u2019re doing that, they\u2019re doing the other.<\/p>\n

“Clearly, they didn\u2019t want to tell us what was happening, so I had enough, and I decided at 6 o\u2019clock I\u2019m getting off this plane. I told them I want to get off.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Screen grab taken from flightradar24 showing planes at Heathrow Airport in London<\/p>\n

She said the staff were “exceptional” and helped passengers exit the plane.<\/p>\n

Ms Donoghue added: “Getting through that airport was like trying to get out of Alcatraz. We were trapped in there. We were told we couldn\u2019t get out until the flights were cancelled, and then eventually they allowed us to get out.”<\/p>\n

She added: “It\u2019s just an absolute nightmare down there, it\u2019s the only word I can use to describe it.” Ms Donoghue is hoping to rebook a flight to Ireland for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of flights in the UK have been impacted by a major ‘technical issue’ today Press Association Reporters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[44766,103,397,396,61,60,1899],"class_list":["post-622535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-flight","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ryanair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}