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.