Chaos at British airports as thousands of passengers are left 'stuck on the tarmac' after 'radar issues' ground flights
Departures from airports including the UK's largest - London Heathrow - are on hold due to an ATC failure.
Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Stansted, Manchester, Gatwick, and Luton are among those affected.
Technical issues appear to have closed off London 's airspace, leaving lots of flights circling.
One person on X reported a Heathrow bound flight is currently circling Ben Nevis while unable to land safely.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
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Times
21 minutes ago
- Times
Confessions of a freelancer
It's a beautiful night as we park the cars at the estate cottage and make our way to the river. I've never been to this swimming spot before but my friends say it's one of the best. To get there we meander down a lime avenue, the kind of thing for which Perthshire is famous. The leaves are so bright when seen from below, it's as if the air has been stained green. As we walk horses pass with their riders. A bird of prey wheels overhead. We take turns to catch up on our news before reaching the riverbank. It's 5.30pm, a time all three of us used to be chained to our desks. Listen, we're still chained, although for one of us the desk is a potter's wheel. It's just that we make our own timetables now. We're self-employed and in our mid-thirties, with all the stresses and joy that brings. We work late and we work early, through lunch and on the road. So we can shut laptops and down clay at 4.45pm to drive here. Down then, off the path through shallow woodland, where I spot a cep and chop it loose for my breakfast tomorrow. The undergrowth opens to reveal the Tay, pitch-black water and stony beach under a big mackerel sky. We lay out our towels and open the crisps as we talk about our old city jobs. My friends are more international than me. Their past lives were in London, Paris and Stockholm. I only have Edinburgh and Glasgow to add to the list. We were different people then. There's no way I could have imagined this. The brown butter light bouncing off the curving hedgerows on the way to Dunkeld, one of my favourite drives in the world. Past kale fields and a bluebell wood, ginger cattle scratching their backs on wire fences. Yes, I cower at the vans going 70mph on the single-track roads. But then I get to the river and forgive everything. The water is the warmest it has been this year. Our bravest friend goes first and dunks her head like always. I hang back, wincing as I navigate the slimy pebbles. Suddenly we're all under, at eye level with the stony beach. • Five of the best wild swimming spots in Scotland The surface is a fairyland of skeeters. They're illuminated by the sun edging down beneath the horizon. You've gone so far, my friends call to me, as the current pulls me downstream without my noticing. I swim sideways, trying to break the loop. We worked hard to get here and we work harder to stay here, through the maze of HMRC self-assessments, the precarity of the gig economy and unpredictable incomes in creative fields. We don't know what we're doing most days, we agree, and yet we keep going. It's partly because we left the city that we can. One of my friends is restoring a handsome old hotel. The other is about to host her first solo show. They're the ones going far, never mind me in the current. We like to talk about the past and the future, recalling who we've been and urging each other to be ambitious about who we might be. Who we are now involves water. It's just what happens out here. There are no galleries open late, no concentration of bars and restaurants where we can drink till the wee hours. And so we swim, and we sauna, and we go to the village disco at the legion where we rave under strobe lights with £3 pints. We take turns at making dinner. We drink wine — lots of wine — and we stay over, because it's the country and you have to drive everywhere. • Read more from Gabriella Bennett Kim reminds us of another evening a while back when we went to a pool near us and I wept in the hot tub. That year I wasn't getting anywhere fast, the kind of frustration that boils over just before something great happens. It all worked out. I got my book deal and spent 15 months travelling the world. I've hardly been home to see these girls, hardly done the picnics and hikes we've been used to. We take it in turns to drop off the radar when small children are sick or hormones threaten to tip us over the edge. Freelance work doesn't always guarantee attendance. One person is usually missing, standing downwind of the reality of living. Last summer one of the gang moved to Copenhagen to chase her dream job. Later, in the WhatsApp chat, we post the river pictures and she sends a heart from 1,200 miles away. Somehow we're all swimming, all going far on this ever-gold night. @palebackwriter Kristie de Garis's debut memoir, Drystone: A Life Rebuilt, is many things. A drystone waller, photographer and writer based in Perthshire, she tells the truth of rural Scotland through worlds spun from a creative mind (Birlinn £14.99). Buy from or call 020 3176 2935. Free UK standard P&P on online orders over £25. Discount for Times+ members.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Dunelm slashes 50% off ‘absolutely brilliant' suitcase that's perfect for Ryanair and Easyjet flights this summer
DUNELM has slashed to half price off an "absolutely brilliant" suitcase that is perfect for flights this summer. It comes in a range of sized that can be put under the seat, in the overhead locker, or as checked-in luggage. 2 The Elements Two-Tone Hard Shell Suitcase be bought for £17.50 to £25, depending on the size, which is down from £35 to £50 at Dunelm. They come in two colourways, an Olive green, or Fuschia, making the suitcase easy to spot on the conveyor belt. There are three size options, from the smallest "cabin" size, to medium and large. The suitcase includes four spinner wheels, that can be used with a push button trolley system. It comes in a strong hard shell, with sturdy handles and zip insert that has an elastic clip closure to hold your belongings in place. The product dimensions are H 55cm x W 40cm x D 20cm, at 2.5kg for the cabin case. This means it can be taken on as a free, small carry-on bag that fits under the seat on EasyJet and BA flights, or in the overhead locker on Ryanair and Jet2 flights. The medium case measures H 67cm x W 44.5cm x D 25cm, at 3.1kg. And the large case is H 76cm x W 50cm x D 28.5cm, weighing 3.8kg. The dimensions are particularly important to note, after a leaked email showed staff across major airports in the UK would receive payments for every bag confiscated from easyJet passengers ahead of boarding. Things to buy at Dunelm Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has also considered bigger bonuses for staff who identify passengers with oversized bags. The suitcase from Dunelm received an overall rating of 4.3 stars from customers. One reviewer described it has an "absolutely brilliant case and so light to carry. Another raved: "Loved my suitcase with the bright colours couldn't miss it on the belt! "It's easy to push along and the inside is great too, I had a lot of looks and people saying what lovely colours." It comes as Dunelm also knocked 50 per cent off one of its fancy garden decor ornaments. The Artificial Boxwood Ball Tree has now been slashed to £24.50 from its original price of £49. The retailer has also been providing great bargains on furniture, scanning for up to 90 per cent off. One bar stool was priced down to £10.32 from £103.20. How to bag a bargain SUN Savers Editor Lana Clements explains how to find a cut-price item and bag a bargain… Sign up to loyalty schemes of the brands that you regularly shop with. Big names regularly offer discounts or special lower prices for members, among other perks. Sales are when you can pick up a real steal. Retailers usually have periodic promotions that tie into payday at the end of the month or Bank Holiday weekends, so keep a lookout and shop when these deals are on. Sign up to mailing lists and you'll also be first to know of special offers. It can be worth following retailers on social media too. When buying online, always do a search for money off codes or vouchers that you can use and are just two sites that round up promotions by retailer. Scanner apps are useful to have on your phone. app has a scanner that you can use to compare prices on branded items when out shopping. Bargain hunters can also use B&M's scanner in the app to find discounts in-store before staff have marked them out. And always check if you can get cashback before paying which in effect means you'll get some of your money back or a discount on the item.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Storm Floris: 90mph winds trigger air, rail and sea chaos
Disruption from Storm Floris will continue into Tuesday, passengers have been warned after wind gusts of up to 82 mph brought down trees and power lines across Scotland and Ireland, triggering transport chaos for trains, flights and ferries. More than 22,500 homes were without power, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said, with 10,000 more affected in Ireland – mostly in Co Donegal and Co Roscommon. Festivals in Edinburgh were also been disrupted, with the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo among the events cancelled, while the delivery of exam results to some island communities was delayed according to the Scottish Qualifications Authority. The Met Office confirmed wind gusts of up to 79mph as far apart as Kinloss, east of Inverness, and the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, with 82mph recorded at Wick in Caithness. Transport was paralysed across much of northern Britain. Network Rail closed all rail lines north of the Central Belt from midday, while a number of roads have been blocked. Disruption will continue into Tuesday. Ross Moran, Network Rail Scotland route director, said: 'Storm Floris has caused significant disruption to Scotland's railway, with wind speeds of up to 90mph, unprecedented for a summer storm. 'Our teams will work through the night, but this work will continue into Tuesday morning. We'll use two helicopters to assist engineers on the ground. We're grateful to passengers for their patience whilst we do this.' Earlier, the train operator had appealed to property owners to secure 'tents, trampolines or furniture' to prevent them being blown on to railway tracks. Anglo-Scottish rail travel was nigh-impossible on the East Coast and West Coast main lines. LNER and Lumo warned passengers not to attempt to travel north of Newcastle, while Avanti West Coast advised travellers not to venture north of Preston. The Caledonian Sleeper serving Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William is cancelled overnight on Monday. Train operators will accept passengers' tickets dated Monday on Tuesday, and in some cases Wednesday. Travellers were able to reach or leave Scotland by air for some of the day, but high winds at the northern airports of Aberdeen and Inverness caused two flights to turn back to their starting points. Both easyJet from Luton to Inverness and KLM from Amsterdam to Aberdeen abandoned their landings and flew back, with passengers enduring 900-mile 'flights to nowhere'. By 6pm the aviation data analyst, Cirium, had calculated more than 150 flights were cancelled: 79 departures and 74 arrivals. Most served northern Scotland and Northern Ireland. Aberdeen was worst affected with 29 cancellations, while Belfast City experienced 21 grounded flights. A number of campervans have been blown over on the A87 road, which leads to Portree on the Isle of Skye. Police Scotland said: "We have received multiple reports of campervans being blown over on the A87 between Broadford and Portree due to high winds caused by Storm Floris. "We are advising motorists not to travel on the Bealach na Ba road and anyone with campervans should remain parked in sheltered areas until the wind speed reduces." Elsewhere, some roads in Scotland and northern England were blocked by fallen trees. The vast majority of ferries serving western Scotland were cancelled. Caledonian MacBrayne warned people planning to sail on Tuesday: 'Due to forecast adverse weather, sailings will be liable to disruption or cancellation at short notice. Northlink, which serves Orkney and Shetland from mainland Scotland, warns of the possibility of disruption 'through to Wednesday 6 August'. Storm Floris is the sixth named storm of the 2024-25 naming season, which runs from early September to late August. January's Storm Eowyn was the most recent.
