# Minister for Oblivious… bungling Stephen Flynn didn’t know about ferry’s methane gas leak

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/minister-for-oblivious-bungling-stephen-flynn-didnt-know-about-ferrys-methane-gas-leak/
- Published: 2026-09-09T17:07:53+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-09T17:19:10+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16118215/Flynn-didnt-know-ferrys-methane-gas-leak.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: Government, Politics, World

## Key points

- Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn unaware of ferry's 700kg methane leak for hours
- He blamed missing the news on "Facetiming my kids"
- Incident on MV Glen Sannox only revealed a year later via FOI request

## Summary

Scotland's Transport Secretary, Stephen Flynn, has faced sharp criticism after admitting he was unaware of a serious methane gas leak aboard the CalMac ferry MV Glen Sannox, which he only learned about more than nine hours after it broke as a BBC Scotland news story. Flynn told a Holyrood transport committee he had missed the coverage because he was "Facetiming my kids", prompting accusations from opposition politicians that he was "unprepared and unserious" for failing to grasp a significant safety incident involving a vessel carrying 82 passengers.

The leak, which occurred in June 2025 as the ferry sailed from Arran, saw roughly 700kg of methane escape from the ship's side, enough to fill a four-bedroom house, triggering gas alarms and an automatic shutdown of the port main engine after some gas was drawn back into the engine room. Details only emerged a year later via a freedom of information request, prompting committee convenor Willie Rennie and Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay to condemn the delay and Flynn's apparent ignorance of it. The Glen Sannox, part of a much-delayed and over-budget CalMac ferry programme originally costed at £97 million but now running to around £500 million, has used only diesel rather than LNG since the incident, though CalMac maintains the vessel is safe to operate on gas.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.