Flight Radar surge leaves Flightradar24 slow as users track flights amid Middle East tensions
A sudden surge of people using flight radar tools left Flightradar24 struggling with slow loads and partial outages, and the platform said engineers are working to restore normal service as users try to track flights amid growing tensions in the Middle East.
Users unable to open website and app
Many users said they were unable to open or properly use the Flightradar24 website and mobile app, with pages taking time to load and responding slowly. Users reported that flights were not appearing on the live maps and some functions became unresponsive while they tried to follow individual planes.
DownDetector: complaints rose around the afternoon
Outage tracker DownDetector logged complaints starting to rise around the afternoon, with most users flagging problems on the website (58 per cent) and the remainder primarily citing app problems (42 per cent). A very small number of users — around one per cent — flagged login-related issues during the outage.
Flight Radar interest spiked amid Iran–Israel–United States conflict
Flightradar24 is trending because of the ongoing tensions and military conflict between Iran, Israel and the United States. Several countries in the Middle East temporarily closed their airspace for safety reasons, and many flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted. Those sudden route changes drove a large number of people to use the platform to track aircraft in real time on the live map.
What the platform shows and why people were watching
Flightradar24 lets people track airplanes in real time on a live map and displays details such as flight number, airline, departure and arrival airports, altitude and speed. The spike in interest came as travellers, aviation fans and industry watchers tried to follow cancellations and diversions prompted by the temporary airspace closures.
Other online platforms also slowed earlier this afternoon
Flightradar24 was not the only service to see heavy traffic. Several other online platforms experienced temporary slowdowns, and the social media platforms X and Reddit had brief disruptions earlier this afternoon as users flocked online to follow breaking developments tied to the conflict.
Flightradar24 posts update on X as engineers work to fix issue
Flightradar24 posted on X: "We are aware that many users are still experiencing site availability issues. This is due to an unprecedented volume of traffic requests. Our engineers are working hard to resolve the issue. We appreciate your patience. " The message reiterated that the outage stems from unusually high traffic rather than a long-term infrastructure change.
For now, users continuing to see slow loads or missing flights are advised to wait as the company’s engineers continue recovery efforts. Flightradar24 said engineers are working to resolve the issue and asked users for patience while service is restored.
