All London Heathrow and Gatwick Airport flights ‘grounded’ in main journey chaos
This is a breaking news story and is being constantly updated
Heathrow Airport is one of the airports hit with the issue (file)(Image: georgeclerk via Getty Images)
Two major UK airports have seen flights grounded today (September 8) causing travel chaos for passengers. All departing flights at London Heathrow Airport have been grounded following a technical issue with air traffic control equipment, according to AIRLive.
An urgent ground stop for departures was implemented at 12.48pm this afternoon after the system failure disrupted ATC communications and equipment. Meanwhile, flights from London Gatwick have also been halted due to the “technical issues”.
National Air Traffic Services (NATS) says their “engineers are on site” as they look to investigate the issue currently causing major disruption at the two airports. It is currently unknown when flight departures will return to normal.
Passengers have also been posting on social media about the delays with one writing “Currently sat on the tarmac in Gatwick for the last hour”.
A statement from National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said: “We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures. Our engineers are on site and we will provide an update as soon as we can.
“We apologise for the delay this will cause to journeys, passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight.”
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