UK transport secretary orders probe into avoidable air traffic failure

September 9, 2026 at 09:13 PM2 min

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UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the Commons she ordered an independent investigation into Tuesday's four-hour air traffic control failure that cancelled more than 2,000 flights. She ruled out a cyberattack and said she did not believe the issue was unavoidable. The Civil Aviation Authority will conduct the review and report back in six months.

Key Facts

More than 2,000 flights were cancelled due to the air traffic control outage on Tuesday.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander ordered the Civil Aviation Authority to conduct an independent review and report back in six months.
Nats has been asked to investigate the incident and report back in one week.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority said passengers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation because the disruption is likely to be considered 'extraordinary circumstances'.
In 2023, a computer shutdown over the August bank holiday weekend caused chaos for 700,000 passengers.

Investigation Ordered

Heidi Alexander told the Commons she had ordered an independent investigation by the aviation watchdog into the system operated by Nats, which went down for four hours on Tuesday. After meeting with Nats boss Martin Rolfe, Alexander said a cyberattack could be ruled out, but added: 'I do not believe this issue was unavoidable.' Nats has been asked to investigate the incident and report back in one week, while the Civil Aviation Authority will conduct an independent review and present an update in six months' time.

Airline Reaction

Airlines UK, which represents the country's carriers, wrote to Alexander to register serious concerns over the technical failure, the third major system failure in three years. Chief executive Tim Alderslade said: 'The result is a system where airlines pick up the bill for the mistakes of others, while the organisations responsible face little or no financial consequence.' The UK Civil Aviation Authority reminded airlines of their responsibilities to look after passengers whose flights had been delayed or cancelled.

Previous Outages

In 2023, a computer shutdown over the August bank holiday weekend caused chaos for 700,000 passengers. It took an engineer, who had been unable to correct the fault from home, three hours to get to work. There was another, smaller Nats outage in 2025, which caused 150 cancellations. Nats is a public-private partnership, with the government holding the majority stake.