Major disruption at Heathrow and Gatwick after all ‘departures grounded’

A ground stop for departures appears to have been implemented

Aviation new site Air Live reported that all flights from the Heathrow and Gatwick had been stopped following a technical failure in air traffic control (ATC) equipment early on Tuesday afternoon (8 September).

Meanwhile, flight tracking data appeared to show the same issue at London City Airport, but a flight has since left.

Air Live report that a ground stop for departures was implemented at 12.48pm BST after the system failure disrupted ATC communications and equipement.

It said that airport management confirmed the temporary halt of outgoing flights while people worked on restoring the normal functionality.

The reports appear to backed up by current flight radar tracking sites, which show no plans departing the usually busy airports.

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."

Flights backed up on the ground at Heathrow. Credit: Screenshot Flightradar24.

Currently only planes are landing with none to very few taking off with large gaps of time between them.

Flights backed up on the ground at Gatwick. Credit: Screenshot Flightradar24.

Passengers have also been posting about the delays on social media.

One person posted on X: " Currently sat on the tarmac in Gatwick for the last hour.

Another said: "Our flight is delayed sitting here in Gatwick."

One person at Heathrow wrote: "Stuck on a plane from Bilbao to the UK and the pilot has said that the whole UK air traffic control system is down. I don't know if this is in addition to the problems at gatwick and heathrow. We've been told to wait on the plane for 45 mins, if not it could be up to 5 hours."

Meanwhile, one passenger stuck at Luton wrote: "Flight delays from Luton airport. Currently projecting delays of 5 hours."