Storyline
Heathrow air traffic disruption September 2026
One page that accretes the verified record as the story develops. Every fact keeps its date and its sources.
1 DAYS
16 FACTS
2 EVENTS
2 SOURCES
FIRST ENTRY SEP 09
SEP 09 · Day 1
UK airport chaos ruins travelers' holidays
An air traffic control system outage led to thousands of flight cancellations on Tuesday.
British transport minister Heidi Alexander instructed the UK’s independent aerospace regulator to conduct an independent review into the cause of an air traffic control system outage.
SEP 09 · Day 1
UK air traffic chief rules out cyber attack after massive Heathrow disruption
Martin Rolfe said NATS ruled out a cyber attack as the cause of the software issue that disrupted flights on Tuesday.
Martin Rolfe said NATS had not seen an incident like this in 50 years of operation.
The technical issue was confirmed by NATS shortly before 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday and was resolved by 7:30 p.m.