// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Swinney backs Flynn in ferry gas leak row and says 'nobody's perfect'
Stephen Flynn denied knowing about the leak on board the Glen Sannox at a meeting of the transport committee last month
First Minister John Swinney has backed Stephen Flynn in the row over whether the transport secretary had been briefed about a gas leak on a CalMac ferry.
Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg programme in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, Swinney said emails showed Flynn had not been briefed ahead of a Holyrood committee meeting last month.
The first minister said he had confidence in his transport secretary, who "recognised that he should have been across an issue to be in front of the transport committee and he remedied that right away".
Swinney added: "Nobody's perfect, nobody's infallible".
Flynn was appearing before the transport committee on 9 September when he said he was not aware of a BBC Scotland News story published online more than nine hours earlier.
It revealed how a faulty valve led to 700kg of flammable methane gas being vented from the side of the ferry MV Glen Sannox while it was carrying passengers from Arran to Troon in June 2025.
Valve failure on CalMac ferry saw uncontrolled escape of flammable gas
Speaking to the committee, Flynn said he had missed the report because he was facetiming his children before the meeting.
But a briefing document released via a freedom of information (FOI) request and published by the Scottish Sun, external and The Times, external newspapers on Thursday evening showed Flynn's office was contacted about the story twice in the half hour before the committee meeting began.