The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA<\/a>), which is conducting an independent review, has told those impacted that the \u201cdisruption caused by the Nats outage is likely to be considered the result of \u2018extraordinary circumstances\u2019 under passenger rights rules\u201d.<\/p>\n This means passengers are \u201cunlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Airports have warned of further disruption on Wednesday after more than 2,000 flights<\/a> to and from the UK<\/a> were cancelled or delayed due to a \u201ctechnical issue\u201d.<\/p>\n National Air Traffic Control<\/a> Service (Nats) chief Martin Rolfe was summoned at lunchtime to see Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, after reporting a problem with the organisation\u2019s flight data processing system. <\/p>\n Asked whether Ms Alexander and the prime minister still have confidence in Rolfe, a spokesperson said: \u201cWe have confidence in him and he\u2019s been tasked with an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Around 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday, according to Flightradar24, with a further 347 cancellations recorded on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Have you been affected by airport delays? Get in touch by emailing sophie.dickinson@independent.co.uk<\/p>\n <\/a>‘Fraudsters tried to sell me fake BA flights’, stranded passengers say<\/p>\n Holidaymakers Geoff and Janina McBride are warning people about a scam that NatWest fortunately rescued them from.<\/p>\n The McBrides, from Hampshire, were trying to travel to Lisbon and then on to the Azores to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary \u2013 but their flight was cancelled.<\/p>\n Former government nanotechnology scientist Mr McBride, 63, told PA they called a phone number on what they thought was the official BA website.<\/p>\n A fraudster pretending to work for the airline tried to offer them alternative flights from London City, Gatwick or Heathrow airports and via Munich.<\/p>\n The false flights were about \u00a3600 each, but the payments to him were not going through.<\/p>\n His wife, 64, called NatWest to ask why and they told her \u201cget off the phone to them immediately\u201d, Mr McBride said.<\/p>\n His card was blocked and the payments cancelled, he added, telling PA: \u201cWhat do you do when you\u2019re in a drama?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very well-versed in cybersecurity, but it\u2019s that one click, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it looked legitimate, proper, he sounded proper, he was going through all the different flights, had all the details, so he can pull that off the internet and speak to me down the phone, credit card details \u2013 so I was lucky, very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr McBride added: \u201cWe were in a panic \u2013 that\u2019s when they get you.\u201d<\/p>\n Harriette Boucher10 September 2026 05:00<\/p>\n <\/a>In depth: Inside the IT \u2018glitch\u2019 that triggered UK flight chaos \u2013 and the warnings issued three years ago<\/p>\n As airport passengers began seeing flights<\/a> delayed on departure boards at Heathrow<\/a> and Gatwick<\/a>, National Air Traffic Services (Nats), the UK<\/a>\u2019s air traffic control provider, issued an alert <\/a>over a \u201ctechnical issue\u201d causing disruption.<\/p>\n An hour and a half later, amid heightened chaos<\/a> that had spread to other major airports across the country, the public-private partnership body<\/a> sent out an update, explaining that the issue in \u201cour flight processing system\u201d had been identified. Some 75 minutes later it said had been fixed and systems were recovering \u2013 but with a warning that the disruption could last days.<\/p>\n Such a recovery<\/a> took longer than hoped, conceded Nats in a further statement<\/a> at 7.30pm, as the increasingly under-fire body offered an unreserved apology to the growing thousands of passengers stranded at airports, including Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester.<\/p>\n To the hardened airline traveller, it brought, perhaps, a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n Harriette Boucher10 September 2026 04:00<\/p>\n <\/a>Ryanair repeats calls for ‘overpaid failing’ air traffic boss to be sacked<\/p>\n Ryanair has taken another jab at the \u2018overpaid failing\u201d boss of Nats, repeating calls for him to sacked after yesterday\u2019s technical glitch.<\/p>\n Chief operating officer Neal McMahon said: \u201cThe last thing UK passengers and airlines need after yet another NATS system collapse is another \u2018review\u2019 or \u2018report\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cAsking failed CEO Martin Rolfe to conduct this report is similar to asking a failed student to mark his own exam paper!\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cMartin Rolfe, after the Aug 2023 NATS system collapse promised Parliament that this wouldn\u2019t happen again, and that an effective back-up system would be introduced. UK passengers learned yesterday that these assurances were worthless. The NATS ATC system collapsed again, and yet again, there was no back-up system.<\/p>\n \u201cMartin Rolfe, the overpaid failing CEO cannot be trusted to report on his own failings. He should be sacked and replaced with someone competent to run the UK ATC system and to prevent repeated collapses of UK ATC and it\u2019s non-existent back-up systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Harriette Boucher10 September 2026 03:00<\/p>\n <\/a>ICYMI: ‘Martin Rolfe will not last as boss of Nats’, says former Virgin Atlantic director<\/p>\n Martin Rolfe, the boss of the air traffic control provider Nats, has been summoned to brief transport secretary Heidi Alexander on what caused the “technical issue” at air traffic control.<\/p>\n It comes three years after a glitch in Nats flight processing system caused major failure. Nats has told The Independent that yesterday’s incident was not down to the same issue.<\/p>\n Paul Charles, former director at Virgin Atlantic and now CEO of The PC Agency, told The Independent that Mr Rolfe will likely go over a lack of investment in control systems.<\/p>\n He said: “It is unacceptable for a critical piece of UK national infrastructure to fall over so significantly three times within four years. And for that I think Martin Rolf will not last as CEO.”<\/p>\n Alex Ross10 September 2026 02:00<\/p>\n <\/a>Comment: What does Britain\u2019s failing air traffic control boss have to do to get fired?<\/p>\n NATS boss Martin Rolfe has the prime minister\u2019s full support \u2013 but after the third major technical failure in as many years, grounding hundreds of flights and cost the British economy millions, it\u2019s high time he was replaced, says James Moore <\/p>\n Harriette Boucher10 September 2026 01:00<\/p>\n <\/a>In pictures: Hundreds of flights cancelled on Wednesday as disruption continued across UK Harriette Boucher10 September 2026 00:00<\/p>\n <\/a>400 UK flights cancelled on Wednesday <\/p>\n Some 399 flights in and out of the UK were cancelled on Wednesday, the latest data has shown. <\/p>\n According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, 7 per cent of all flights failed to take off today.<\/p>\n There were 209 flights arriving or departing Heathrow that were cancelled, 23 to Manchester, and 18 to Gatwick. <\/p>\n The worst affected airlines were British Airways, which had 88 flights cancelled, and easyJet which had 31.<\/p>\n Cirium said interruption was slowing down on Wednesday evening, with no cancellations currently expected tomorrow.<\/p>\n Harriette Boucher9 September 2026 23:15<\/p>\n <\/a>Editorial: Britain\u2019s crumbling vital infrastructure cannot be allowed to fail<\/p>\n The latest \u2018technical glitch\u2019 to cause widespread chaos at Britain\u2019s airports must not be allowed to happen yet again. But preventing it will mean confronting the awesome challenge \u2013 and cost \u2013 of modernising air traffic control<\/p>\n Harriette Boucher9 September 2026 22:30<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01M23EC5F7S2718KEGGRPCC3GT.jpg\")
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