Passengers caught up in widespread flight cancellations and delays following a major technical fault across Britain’s airports are “unlikely” to qualify for compensation, the UK Civil Aviation Authority has cautioned.

More than 300,000 travellers were reportedly affected yesterday after a problem with National Air Traffic Services’ flight processing system triggered significant disruption across the aviation network.

The failure caused chaos at some of the country’s busiest airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham, leaving passengers stuck in terminals, delayed at gates and stranded on aircraft waiting on runways.

British Airways said it alone had been forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights, a move the airline said affected “tens of thousands of customers”.

However, travellers have now been told that the air traffic control technical failure is expected to fall under “extraordinary circumstances” in passenger rights rules, meaning compensation is unlikely to be paid.

The British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said this evening: ‘Although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident.’

The CAA confirmed it has launched an investigation to understand what exactly caused the fault after NATS chief Martin Rolfe admitted last night that the service did ‘not yet have an idea’. 

Mr Rolfe faced calls to resign from a host of airlines following the ordeal and met with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander this morning. 

Alexander made clear she did not believe the shambles was ‘unavoidable’, though Mr Rolfe will not be ousted immediately while he retains the confidence of Downing Street. 

He was, however, branded an ‘overpaid failure’ yesterday after a similar issue caused chaos at British airports only last year.

Effectively pleading for his survival in a broadcast interview this morning, Mr Rolfe confirmed that a cyber attack was not responsible for the carnage. 

He promised there would be a ‘very, very thorough investigation’ into the issue – but also argued that such incidents were ‘inevitable’.

Tens of thousands of passengers were caught up in the travel mayhem after a system issue hit NATS, which provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports.

Chaos continued today with more cancellations and delays as airlines deal with the knock-on impacts at hubs including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said as of 3pm, more than 300 flights had been cancelled or not taken off today, with more than 2,000 affected over the past two days.

British Airways said the fault had forced it to cancel almost 550 of its flights, which had impacted more than 85,000 passengers.

The airline said it was ‘incredibly sorry’ to its customers and that the issue had been ‘entirely out of our control’.

Mr Rolfe told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We will be doing a very, very thorough and full investigation. We have at this point ruled out cyber, we don’t believe it was a cyber attack.

‘My focus and that of the team has been on both getting our system operating back up normally, which it is now, but there’s obviously a huge tail to the disruption and we’ll be working on that through the course of today.

‘And then our attention will turn to exactly what’s happened in this particular incident. What I will say is I don’t believe we’ve ever seen an incident happen more than once, so this will be something different that we’ve never seen in 50 years of operation.’

Mr Rolfe also apologised for the disruption, adding: ‘Inevitably, things do go wrong in complex systems. We never want them to. We always hope they won’t, but we absolutely plan for them to and make sure we handle them properly.

‘I would say the UK has one of the best reputations in the world for its air traffic control service, both from a safety perspective and from a resilience perspective.

‘NATS was actually a partial privatisation 25 years ago, and since that point, it’s had access to funding. We’ve invested way more than a billion in technology over that time, our service has consistently improved. Our safety is consistently improved from a very good base.

‘But all of those things don’t detract from the fact that when these things happen, it is disappointing and upsetting, for which I apologise.’

Discussing the response to yesterday’s incident, Mr Rolfe said: ‘We had everybody on site, everybody was in the right place. We had all the engineers in place. We had our various partners from software industries and so on all on hand.

‘So this was resolved as quickly as it could be, but within the limits of making sure that it all stayed safe.’

Ms Alexander told MPs this afternoon that she did not believe the air traffic control problems that have caused chaos for passengers were ‘unavoidable’.

She said in the Commons: ‘A four-hour air traffic outage yesterday left hundreds of thousands of passengers facing cancellations, diversions and delays. I would like to apologise wholeheartedly to passengers for this disruption.

‘We often take for granted the way in which our aviation system just works, but yesterday that was not the case. Safety must remain air traffic controllers’ overriding priority and this morning I have spoken to NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe, who informed me this outage was due to a technical issue at their Swanwick site.

‘So, while my understanding from NATS is that we can rule out a cyber attack on this occasion, I do not believe this issue was unavoidable.

‘We also spoke this morning about how NATS responded to resolve and minimise the disruption as quickly as possible, and I am grateful to the airports and airlines who responded straight away.

‘But I am clear that passengers should not have to face this disruption. I have therefore asked the CAA to conduct an independent review to establish cause and ensure that our air traffic control systems can get passengers to where they need to be and this … review will report to me within six months.’

ALSO READ: New York Jets Owner Woody Johnson to Be Honored at Tunnel to Towers Foundation Gala

The managing director of Wizz Air UK, Yvonne Moynihan, said it should be a case of ‘three strikes and you’re out’.

‘I’m very surprised at that and it would seem like an easy pass for him after a number of own goals,’ she told Times Radio. 

‘There have been three distinct and three separate incidents over three summers, particularly in August, September time, which is very busy period for airlines. 

‘So the question is not whether failures can happen. The question is whether enough has been done since the previous incidents to prevent another nationwide disruption. 

‘We’ve used the phrase three strikes and you’re out. It seems from the airlines’ and the industry’s point of view that three failures is unacceptable and passengers and airlines want to understand why would there be confidence in a public system that continues to fail.’ 

Ryanair chief operating officer Neal McMahon also insisted that Mr Rolfe should go.

‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome,’ he told Times Radio. 

‘We had the same flight planning processing issue in 2023… yet here we are less than three years later…’

He added: ‘We understand the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, is going to meet with Martin Rolfe today, and we think she should ask him to resign.’ 

Mr McMahon said the airlines had invested ‘hugely in resilience’, in contrast to NATS.

The problem is that they have a crap system and they don’t invest in it,’ he said.

‘And instead of investing in the system, they pay big bonuses to management and they pay huge dividends to the shareholders.’

Earlier, Mr Rolfe said that he ‘always accept(s) full responsibility’ when asked if he was considering his position after the incident.

He told Sky News: ‘I am the CEO of a piece of critical infrastructure, so it is my job to take responsibility for that.

‘What I absolutely take responsibility for is keeping people safe and delivering the best service we possibly can on a day like today.

‘You will understand my focus is entirely about how we actually resolve this issue, get things back to normal, help our airlines, our airport customers and the travelling public.’

This morning, Heathrow advised travellers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

‘Following yesterday’s NATS technical issue, flights are operating today, but some disruption may continue as airlines reposition aircraft and crew,’ it said in a statement on social media.

‘Please check your flight status with your airline before travelling to the airport and only travel if your flight is confirmed to be operating.

‘We apologise to those affected and have extra colleagues across our terminals to support passengers while we work with NATS and airline partners to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.’

Gatwick also said flights had resumed but disruption was likely to continue.

Its statement said: ‘We still anticipate that it will take time for our operations to fully return to normal. Passengers should continue to check with their airlines for more information regarding their flights.’

Luton Airport confirmed early this morning that the airport was ‘open and operational’, but said: ‘Some flights may still be subject to disruption and passengers are advised to check their flight status directly before travelling to the airport.’

Travel journalist Simon Calder said the knock-on effects today were ‘going to be horrible’.

He told Sky News: ‘There are going to be dozens of cancellations in the morning of flights coming into Heathrow because, basically, the flights didn’t go out tonight.’

Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and it had cancelled more than 50 scheduled flights.

British Airways (BA) said it was forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday which had affected ‘tens of thousands of customers’.

Mr Rolfe has been under fire from Wizz Air and Ryanair after the latest issue which saw some passengers trapped on planes on runways for hours.

Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operating officer, called on Mr Rolfe to resign, saying: ‘How many more failures do passengers have to suffer before overpaid failure NATS CEO Martin Rolfe accepts responsibility for his repeated mismanagement and resigns?

‘Over three years after NATS’ catastrophic 2023 system meltdown, it’s clear that nothing has changed, with UK passengers once again suffering avoidable ATC (air traffic control) delays of up to eight hours today due a critical NATS ATC system failing’.

Last night, NATS said on X: ‘Work is continuing to assist airlines and airports recover from today’s disruption.

‘This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover.

‘We apologise again for the disruption caused. Passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight tonight or tomorrow.’

Ms Alexander is set to speak with Mr Rolfe today before she addresses MPs in the Commons for the second reading of the Civil Aviation Bill.

Among the thousands facing disruption yesterday was Josie Donoghue, who had to get off her flight to Ireland after spending three hours on the runway at Gatwick.

Ms Donoghue said: ‘Getting through that airport was like trying to get out of Alcatraz. We were trapped in there. We were told we couldn’t get out until the flights were cancelled, and then eventually they allowed us to get out.

‘It’s just an absolute nightmare down there, it’s the only word I can use to describe it.’

Have you been affected? Email lettice.bromovsky@dailymail.co.uk 

A nearly century-old painting has gone viral again, reigniting online claims that it may contain evidence of time travel.

The 1937 artwork, titled ‘Mr Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield,’ appears to show an Indigenous man from the 17th century holding what some viewers insist looks strikingly like a smartphone as if he is posing for a selfie.

In the foreground of the painting, the figure is seen gripping the lower portion of a dark rectangular object with a pale or metallic-looking edge, while staring toward its upper section in a way that modern audiences associate with using a phone.

Because such a device would have been impossible in both the colonial-era scene depicted and the 1930s period in which the painting was created, the unusual detail has fueled years of speculation that the artist may have hidden a time-travel clue in the well-known work.

Reacting to the image online, one person wrote: ‘Now that one actually looks like a cell phone.’ Another viewer wondered: ‘Is that an iPhone?’

While believers and skeptics have clashed over what the item could be, historians have leaned towards the handheld device actually being a mirror, which the Indigenous man would have obtained in a trade with English colonist William Pynchon.

The 1937 work is one of several paintings, sculptures and photographs which have allegedly captured an object which was centuries ahead of its time.

Moreover, multiple individuals have given viral interviews where they claimed without evidence that they were not only time travelers from the future, but that widespread use of time travel would begin as soon as 2028.

The controversial mural by Italian-born artist Umberto Romano is said to be one of six New Deal-era murals showing the history of Springfield, Massachusetts – where Romano grew up.

This particular image depicted Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, trading with natives, likely from the Pocumtuc tribe in western Massachusetts around the 1630s, when the settlement was established.

Unlike the other individuals in the painting, including two men appearing to be punished by being whipped and placed in the wooden stocks, no one else was seen holding anything that looked like it came from the future.

That included depictions of Pynchon’s group trading goods and animals with the Native Americans.

MORE STORY: Richard Branson’s Wife Joan Could Have Been Saved, New Claims Suggest

This has led historians, including Daniel Crown in 2017, to call the mysterious item a painting of a European trade mirror.

Mirrors were common trade goods in that era. The man’s pose – holding up the object and looking at it – matches someone examining their own reflection, possibly for the first time using a polished mirror.

Despite heavy skepticism that the painting was only showing a mirror, ‘Mr Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield’ adds to a growing theory that ancient art has been documenting incidents in which time travelers have visited the past.

A similar painting from the 19th century called The Expected One by Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller depicted a woman walking along a path while looking down at an unknown object she was clutching with both hands.

Although the small, square device could have been a book, conspiracy theorists noted that the woman in the painting looked exactly like how present-day individuals walk while distracted by their smartphones.

Even a sculpture from 100 BC has been repeatedly claimed to be evidence of time travel. Called Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant, the ancient Greek statue allegedly includes a laptop, complete with two USB ports.

At the same time as Romano’s painting has resurfaced, viral interviews online have allegedly documented the confessions of ‘time travelers’ who said the US government already had the ability to travel to the past or the future.

In one recording by a masked man who identified himself as Alexander Smith, the self-proclaimed time traveler said he was a former member of the CIA from 1981 who was recruited to journey to the year 2118.

Smith also claimed that time travel technology had existed for decades before the public knew about it and predicted it would become available ‘beginning in the year 2028’ for both commercial and non-commercial uses.

He further alleged that 2028 is also ‘the same year in which the government discloses the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials,’ claiming authorities had possessed knowledge of aliens ‘for some time previous’ to the announcement.

Large numbers of Republicans are choosing to sit out Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas, even as the president promotes the event as “really HOT!”

The two-day Republican gathering, designed to energize GOP voters and candidates ahead of the November elections, is scheduled to begin Wednesday afternoon and wrap up on Thursday.

Trump is slated to headline both nights, while Vice President JD Vance is expected to address the crowd Wednesday evening. The program will also give several lesser-known Republican candidates a chance to introduce themselves to voters before Election Day.

“The Republican National Convention, tomorrow night in Dallas, is really ‘HOT!’ The American Airlines Center, home to the Dallas Mavericks, is totally sold out,” Trump wrote ahead of the rally.

Yet despite the buildup — and the booking of a major NBA arena for what some have dubbed “Trumpapalooza” — many rank-and-file Republicans say they will not be attending the Dallas event.

Maine Senator Susan Collins, who has sparred with Trump and is running for re-election in a toss-up race, has said she is skipping. Outgoing Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, who Trump bullied out of his Senate seat, is also missing the convention. 

So too are other senators and House members running in more moderate areas who fear that aligning themselves more closely with Trump or the event could hurt their chances at winning. 

‘The reality is that if you aren’t speaking, you’re likely in district campaigning,’ one of the midterm organizers told the Daily Mail, adding they are unsure how many Republican lawmakers will attend.  

At least 45 out of 70 Republicans recently told Politico that they would not attend or were still making up their minds. Similarly, NBC News asked over 50 members; 33 said they would not attend while just 29 said they would. 

Perhaps deterring some lawmakers is the reported $25,000 price tag for a VIP ticket.

For that price, lawmakers get two convention tickets, a reserved hotel room and two spots at the chairman’s welcome reception, according to a National Republican Congressional Committee memo that was distributed to lawmakers. 

While some tickets were offered for free, some VIP packages were priced as high as $100,000. 

‘It’s $25,000, apparently,’ Republican Congressman Tim Burchett said this week. ‘It’s pretty steep.’ He confirmed to the Daily Mail that he will not attend the Dallas convention.  

Dozens of GOP members have noted that they would rather use that money to put towards their own competitive races. 

‘I just felt I’d be more useful in my district,’ Congressman Tom Barrett of Michigan told Politico. ‘I can’t control what the president’s going to say at the convention, but I can control where I’m at, what I’m doing.’

But it’s not just some members of Congress who are skipping out – First Lady Melania Trump is also reportedly missing the event. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth are not slated to speak, but this could be because of laws barring them from appearing at political events due to their roles. 

However, Attorney General Todd Blanche will speak in his personal capacity – sparking Hatch Act concerns. 

The event’s organizers believe there will be between 20,000 and 30,000 attendees over the two-day convention. 

Just about 100 Republican House members and candidates are expected to attend, in addition to dozens of Senators. 

In fact, Trump claims the event is so popular that organizers have been ordered to keep a tight guard on the speaking slots so that incumbent Republicans don’t overshadow the fresh candidates. 

‘Everybody wants to be there, but we’re really asking only those Candidates that are in tight Races, a little up, a little down, or even, to speak,’ Trump wrote.

‘We want to save the “stage” for them. We don’t need people who are up 45 points, and have been in office for 30 years, as much as we love them all!’

Three jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are facing backlash online after saying they were “excited” to complete the verdict forms and describing her defense attorney as “entertaining.”

Clancy, 36, stood trial over the deaths of her three young children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023.

The case ended in a mistrial Friday after five weeks of emotional testimony and more than 37 hours of deliberations, when Judge William Sullivan learned that one juror would not agree to a not-guilty verdict despite acknowledging reasonable doubt.

On Tuesday, three women from the 12-person jury spoke publicly for the first time in an interview with NBC Boston.

Jury foreperson Roni Carlson said she felt “excited” to fill out the verdict forms after the holdout juror conceded there was reasonable doubt in the case.

‘I started filling out the forms. I was so excited. There were three forms I had to fill out, and then he said, “But I’m still not going to say she’s not guilty,”‘ Carlson said.

Critics have slammed Carlson for saying she was ‘excited’ to fill out the papers for a not guilty verdict.

‘The harpies on the Clancy trial jury are lashing out at the one juror who stood in their way because “he had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children,”‘ failed Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt wrote on X.

‘Woo boy. We are cooked.’

Another person wrote: ‘They literally just admitted that all they wanted was to go home. Pathetic.’  

‘These women are lunatics. They are getting excited about releasing a child killer. Society has some serious problems,’ a third person wrote. 

‘Disgusted. This is disgusting. “Excited” to call this killer innocent after brutally murdering her own babies,’ added a fourth. 

A fifth person wrote: ‘She was “so excited” to let a mother who strangled her three kids walk. That excitement tells you everything about how some people view child murder when the killer is a woman.’

The jurors also said they found Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, entertaining.

‘Just his whole demeanor was funny,’ Carlson said, noting there was one instance he made her laugh out loud.

‘He was entertaining, which was good because we needed some of that,’ she added, and the other jurors agreed.

Commentators slammed the jurors for saying they needed entertainment during the serious murder trial.

‘It’s not supposed to be entertaining; it’s a murder trial. Are you kidding me?’ one person wrote on X.

A second person added: ‘If the jury is giggling about the defense while three kids are dead, the system already lost the plot.’

‘I’m so happy the jurors were being entertained. God forbid they were there for anything serious, like who murdered three innocent children?’ wrote a third.

Clancy admitted to strangling her children, but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis.

During five weeks of grueling testimony, prosecutors argued the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.

The 12-person jury, made up of nine women and three men, spent more than 37 hours deliberating if she was guilty of murder, manslaughter, or not guilty. They were not sequestered during deliberations.

On three occasions, jurors sent the judge notes saying they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision.

On Thursday, the jury foreperson sent a note claiming one juror refused to follow the law on reasonable doubt.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington filed a Hail Mary motion to remove the holdout, but it failed, and Judge Sullivan declared a mistrial at Plymouth Superior Court on Friday afternoon. 

As a result, Clancy faces a potential retrial and returned to Tewksbury State Hospital, where she has been held since 2023.

The judge has temporarily sealed the jurors’ names, and the holdout juror has not yet come forward with a public account of what happened inside the jury room.

Carlson also sent the judge a note complaining that a single juror wouldn´t follow the court´s instructions about reasonable doubt.

Juror Paula Devlin described that holdout juror as ‘arrogant.’

‘He really did not take anything that anybody said,’ she told the local news station.

After one juror refused to side with the others late Thursday and early Friday, defense attorney Kevin Reddington sought an emergency order to force jurors into one final round of deliberations.

But the motion failed, and Judge Sullivan declared a mistrial at Plymouth Superior Court on Friday afternoon. As a result, Clancy could face a retrial in the case.