A series of incidents at London’s Luton airport has Israeli airline Israir crying sabotage.
An Airbus A320 was damaged during towing at London Luton on Thursday, forcing the airline to cancel its scheduled flight to Tel Aviv. What’s significant is that this was the third similar incident involving one of its aircraft at Luton in less than a year, and the airline says airport management has not conducted a proper investigation.
British and Israeli security sources say authorities are now examining whether the events intentional and motivated by hostility towards Israel or Jews.
Israeli airline Israir is calling on British authorities to investigate a series of incidents that damaged its aircraft, suspecting they may be targeted acts against the airline.
The latest happened Thursday at Luton Airport, where a pushback tug struck an Israir plane, forcing… pic.twitter.com/i4mhw29fWP
— Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si) July 19, 2026
The damaged plane was YR-ADC, a Romanian-registered, 180-seat Airbus A320 was operating for Israir under a wet lease. The flight was already delayed two and a half hours due to a late inbound aircraft before the tug event. The aircraft was released after about 17 hours on the ground, and arrived back in Israel on Saturday.
This shouldn’t be a difficult investigation, because identifying the employee in physical control of the tug is an easy first start. There should be an incident report. There’s almost certainly CCTV evidence.
Israir Airbus A320, Credit: Oyoyoy via Wikimedia Commons
There’s certainly been hostility towards Israel at U.K. airports. I’ve written before about Heathrow screeners wearing Palestinian flags and watermelon badges while screening El Al passengers, singling out of an arriving El Al flight for customs checks, and the detention of October 7 survivors at Manchester as well where an officer invoked Gaza.
Luton airport apologized earlier this year when a security officer denounced Israel’s legitimacy to a passenger. At Stansted, Gatwick, and Manchester there have been several other disputes over staff injecting pro-Palestine politics into official passenger interactions.
I’d expect also that the tug operator company’s insurance would cover repair of the aircraft, although consequential losses might be contractually excluded. So Israir would still be out hotel, rerouting, passenger compensation, and lost utilization of the aircraft. Passengers on the flight would have been owed £520 apiece under UK261, plus hotels, meals and reaccommodation. If this were provably intentional, an insurer’s liability could increase.
It won’t be long before Israeli’s and Israeli company’s are going to be safer in the UAE and Saudi Arabia then in England.
Doesn’t take too long to snowball into another 1938….
Years of propaganda and willing participants are starting to take hold.
Or, hear me out, get a better ground crew. Don’t rush to blame bigotry for what may be mere incompetence.
@Common Sense — No, this is not 1938 in London. That’s absurd. You really should pick another name, like ‘opposite of common sense.’ The irony is thiccck.
@David P — Wow, peace in the Middle East at last… /s
1990: Can’t expect a communist wannabe to have too much of it.
London is lost.
Weird how the western leftists love the intolerant anti gay anti woman religious fundamentalists that murdered 1500 civilians, butchered babies, raped and murdered women, took hostages, and used their own people as human shields. They’ve shown already that that’s exactly what the leftists also want to do to their political opponents, after all.
Well, I imagine that sabotage of a commercial airliner is a major crime in the UK, much like the US. I have my doubts that a ground employee would risk that, especially with all the surveillance on the airside. I didn’t see any mention of unreported damage found. Would someone(s) risk losing their job or even jail time? IDK.
I could be wrong, but my educated guess is that there are some really lousy or inexperienced people towing and working the ramp.
@MGHOW — Laughably wrong as well. Yet again, London is just fine. So is NYC. We’re not getting missiles lobbed at either city, unlike Dubai and Tel Aviv. C’mon. Bring things back to reality, folks.
@Common Sense — You do realize that you (and the others) diminish the threat of actual enemies and “Communism” (CCP) by claiming everyone you slightly disagree with is a literal ‘communist’… (Naw, naw, ‘winning’ frivolous internet ‘arguments’ is more important. /s …you do you.)
@Mantis — You literally admitted to leaving the US and now being based in Asia… I’m assuming, East Asia, for retirement, lower cost of living, etc., yet, you come on here, during what should probably be your bed-time, to spew hatred for perceived enemies. Please, be like the actual Dr. Toboggan and have a drink (or ten). Nighty night.
@1990 Where do you live? London is far from ok, or is it simply the absence of missiles that in your mind makes a place “ok”? Knives, bombs, guns arson and murder don’t count?
@MGHOW — NYC. Come and get me/us. Visit London at least once a year. Where are you based? Does it even really matter.
Imagine people committing genocide and brazen proud of it, being shocked people don’t like them.
@1990 LBRUT based. One of the safer parts, but still increasingly dangerous.
What a stupid statement @Billy Gates Jr.
– Your (false) claim is about the Israeli government and military, not about Israir which is a privately-owned airline. It’s funny how antisemites claim they’re ‘just criticizing the Israeli government’ but then cannot tell the difference between the Israeli government and the Joos
– Genocide is the deliberate, systematic extermination of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The population of Gaza is more than 2 million. The total Gaza death toll is under 75,000. A majority of those are fighting-age men. The population of Gaza has been on a growth trajectory, not a shrinking one.
Either you do not know what genocide is, you do not know the facts of the conflict, or you are being intentionally disingenuous because you want to target Jews (while pretending your issue is with the Israeli government, which your statement here clearly shows is not true).
“Well, I imagine that sabotage of a commercial airliner is a major crime in the UK, much like the US.”
Maybe so. But it’s of no good if you have a justice system that won’t prosecute or activists who won’t convict.
@MGHOW — Richmond? That’s like someone describing Westchester County (wealthy suburb north of NYC) as a ‘war zone.’ I suppose if you’re looking hard enough, you can convince yourself that anywhere is “unsafe.” I have to wonder what standard you’re using, or if you’re just looking for reasons to be afraid. Attempting to frame one of London’s most peaceful, green, and affluent boroughs as a hotbed of danger is a reach, even for this cuckoo bananas comment section.
Sorry Gary, but your claim that this is only about the Israeli government is disingenuous at best. The people of Israel have continued to support Netanyahu for nearly two decades. Israelis (and Israeli companies) cannot continue to claim no involvement in what their government is doing if they keep electing and supporting that same government over and over and over. The people of Israel (both Jewish and Arab) need to take some responsibility for supporting the policies of their government. Jewish people not in Israel can plausibly claim innocence of the actions of the Israeli government but Israelis cannot.
@farnorthtrader — I’m sure Gary has his opinion. But, I wouldn’t want your standard applied to the US; by that logic, every American is personally complicit in every decision our government has made over the past two decades, from the Iraq War to all the drone strikes, regardless of how you or I may have voted or whether we protested, etc. Should we hold the British people responsible for every policy shift in Westminster, or Canadians for every decree from Ottawa?
It just is more complex than that. Even in present-day Israel, there is deep internal political opposition and civil discourse (think of the protests widespread pushback against the 2023 judicial reforms, you know, just before October 7… hey, side note, why did those protests stop… wait a minut…), just as they do in every other functioning democracy.
Treating an entire population as a monolith is a convenient way to justify hostility, but it erases the reality of individuals with varied, often conflicting, political views. There certainly should be greater transparency and accountability, but collective guilt isn’t the path to that.
“Genocide” has become nothing but a slogan divorced from any historical grounding, as has “fascist”.
Sabotage, coincidence, or was the driver watching world cup soccer on his phone?
With my knowledge of Brits I would not rule out the soccer theory!
@farnorthtrader – actually Netanyahu’s government has hung on by a string, because Israel is heavily divided. That’s why the shameful Ben-Gvir is in the government. He may get toppled this October, the government is certainly polling behind. One in four Israelis say they’d leave the country if Netanyahu is re-elected https://x.com/Nadav_Eyal/status/2078247609714524394
I take it you’re responsible for everything done by the Trump administration? Trump was elected twice! His supporters say three times! You were responsible by for everything done under Biden’s name? He served two terms as vice president before becoming president!
In any case, you’re suggesting there’s no difference between Israel and the Jews undermines the plausible deniability antisemites usually like to claim…
Yeah, blah blah blah. Have you ever been on the ramp at any London or UK airport? I have, (LHR, STN LGW) and the rampers are pretty much all SWA, Southwest Asian, or folks that came from largely Islamic countries. Facts do not = Racism. It’s entirely possible that these incidents were intentional. I love Gary’s post where he said 1/4 of Israelis would leave, yeah right! Like the libs who swore they’d leave if President Trump were re-elected. Some high profile (very wealthy) lesbians did relocate, but guess what, they came back! The others that “threatened” to leave are still here, paid to protest. Empty threats.
@Pilot93434 – nobody thinks they would *actually* leave, it’s an indication of frustration with Netanyahu which rebuts the claim that everyone in the country cheers him on
15/16ths of non-Israelis who take issue with Netanyahu and his government is because they take issue that he is adamant on protecting Israelis and they wise for a liberal weakling who would give away Israel for some pats on the back.
@farnorthtrader By your metric the entire Gaza (and West Bank) population is guilty as they voted for Hamas in overwhelming numbers. To this day, a large majority of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank support Hamas and what they did on 10/7. This is actually a much better use case of your very argument, as a much larger percentage of the Palestinian population supports Hamas compared to the percentage of the Israeli population which supports Netanyahu.
@Common Sense — Next time, just drop the thin-veil, and simply suggest that your perceived enemies hate ‘freedom,’ then call them ‘communists,’ all while scapegoating a vulnerable minority, who is both dangerous and weak, whenever you need them to be one or the other. A known ‘dirty’ playbook. (As for your made-up “15/16ths”… at least you didn’t go with “3/5ths”… *facepalm*)
@1990: I would advise you to stop smoking. It is not good for your health.
@Common Sense — I’m pleasantly surprised that you didn’t take the opportunity to blame Canada for that ‘smoke’ and slap yet another 50% tariff on American consumers as a self-own.
1990: I am not surprised that you keep on hanging everything on me that have nothing to do with me (which was my point with me “accusing” you of smoking).
Almost like those who blame all of the world’s ills on the Jews- I mean, Israel. 😉
@Common Sense — Finally, your mask is off. You spend days on here deflecting, weaving bad-faith straw-men, crying about “feelings,” and whining when someone points out your tactics, only to pull that card the second you run out of actual arguments. More like, common s…moke and mirrors.
1990: No, thank you. You’re doing great. Your handlers are proud of you. Two can play at this game.
@Common Sense — That sure sounds like more projecting… conspiracy theories about “handlers.” It’s a classic tell. *wink*