Sky News and the Guardian confuse Britain’s elite SAS regiment with Scandinavian Airlines in protection of Heathrow shutdown chaos

They are the British Army’s band of most fearsome killers with a history stretching back to the Second World War.

The Special Air Service, better known simply as the SAS, forged their reputation with shockingly violent raids in the dead of night.

But, according to Sky News and the Guardian this morning, the regiment with the famed motto of ‘Who Dares Wins’ also runs a busy roster of flights out of Heathrow. 

In coverage of today’s chaos caused by the closure of the airport after a fire, both outlets confused the elite troops with the national airline of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Scandinavian Airlines System, which is known as SAS, announced early this morning that it had cancelled all 12 of its flights to and from Heathrow.

At 6.58am, The Guardian said on their live blog: ‘The Special Air Service or SAS, has said that it also [sic] impacted by Heathrow’s closure.’

And for several minutes on Sky News, the logo of the winged dagger logo of the SAS was displayed along with text that read: ‘The Special Air Service says all 12 of their round trips to and from Heathrow are cancelled.’

Although both outlets swiftly corrected the error, it did not escape the notice of users on X, formerly known as Twitter.

One wrote: ‘The Guardian doesn’t know the difference between the SAS (black jump-suited hard men who kill nasty people) and the official airline of Scandinavia.’

Another joked: ‘I think someone at @SkyNews might need some re-education. Although I’m sure @SAS Scandinavian Airlines are flattered.’

A third said: ‘In all the chaos of Heathrow, total respect to @skynews for getting the airline SAS confused with the U.K. special forces unit’.

Above a depiction of elite troops flying in a helicopter, a fourth wrote: ‘Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) mounts rescue mission to recover delayed passengers trapped at #Heathrow Terminal 3’. 

Shortly after 7.30am, the Guardian’s liveblog was updated to tell readers about the error.

The message read: ‘This post was amended at 7.38am GMT. An earlier version incorrectly said the initialism SAS referred to the “Special Air Service”.’  

Scandinavian Airlines’ announcement had read: ‘All our 12 round trips are so far cancelled to and from London Heathrow as the airport is currently closed.’   

More than 1,300 flights to and from the UK’s busiest airport will be impacted by today’s closure, which was imposed following a fire at the nearby North Hyde electrical substation in West London.

Thousands of homes were left without power with more than 100 people evacuated after a transformer at the substation caught fire as a huge explosion was heard. 

Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

They allege that the disruption campaign is an extension of President Putin’s war, intended to sow division in European societies and undermine support for Ukraine – although the Kremlin has denied carrying out sabotage efforts against the West.

Some passengers arrived at Heathrow Airport only to be turned away, prompting many to ask for more clarity surrounding the situation.

Others are stranded overseas amid the cancellations.  

British Airways advised customers not to travel to Heathrow on Friday ‘until further notice’.

It said in a statement: ‘This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond.’

Ryanair said it is organising eight ‘rescue flights’ between London Stansted and Ireland for passengers affected by the closure.

The airline said in a statement: ‘Ryanair will operate four extra flights between Dublin and Stansted on Friday afternoon as well as four extra flights on Saturday morning.

‘These flights can be booked on http://Ryanair.com from 9.30am this morning.’