A technical failure at the UK’s air traffic control provider disrupted flights at major airports on Tuesday, prompting speculation on X about a possible connection with Britain’s decision to ban goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which manages air traffic control in the UK, said that the disruption was caused by a fault in its flight processing system at its headquarters near Southampton.
The outage began shortly after 1pm when a computer system processing flight data from airlines stopped working. The failure prevented air traffic controllers from accessing safety information required to manage aircraft travelling through British airspace.
More than 1,000 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled, while Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted were among the airports affected.
Airports in other countries also prepared to receive flights diverted from the UK.
FlightRadar24 reported that about 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday had also been cancelled, with most of the cancellations involving Heathrow.
British Airways said that it had been forced to “cancel or divert more than 100 flights”, describing the disruption as “entirely out of our control” and “an incredibly frustrating experience for customers and colleagues.”
The disruption also prompted criticism of NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe. Ryanair Chief Operating Officer (COO) Neal McMahon called for Rolfe to resign. Rolfe was due to meet Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on Wednesday as officials reviewed the failure.
The timing of the outage has fuelled claims on X that it could be connected to the UK government’s announcement of the settlement-goods ban earlier on Tuesday.
Users cited previous disruptions and alleged possible Israeli involvement, while others made claims about cyber interference and political influence.
One user wrote that NATS developed a “technical issue” just “2 hours and 35 minutes” after the UK announced the ban, asking whether anyone at the National Cyber Security Centre was “paying attention”.
Another user said, “Seems to be a pattern emerging…” and referred to July 2025, when Starmer announced that the UK would recognise Palestine in September, followed the next day by the cancellation of more than 100 flights.
Another user accused the UK government of failing to respond to what they described as Jewish terrorism and claimed that the country was heavily influenced by Jewish money.
Other posts made more direct allegations against Israel. One user claimed that the last major NATS outage on August 28, 2023 came a week after Britain condemned Israel at the United Nations (UN) Security Council and said that the timing suggested Israel could interfere with NATS.
Another post claimed that Israel provides technological infrastructure to Western institutions, pointing out that it could use hidden access to disrupt systems when governments take positions against Israeli interests.
A user wrote, “THEY CLOSED THE AIR SPACE AS A WARNING. BIGGEST DANGER ON THE PLANET IS ISRAEL. BY FAR.”
The current outage has been attributed to a technical failure in NATS’s flight processing system.
