Delay Day after impact of airport registration system

Heathrow was among several European airports hit by delays on Saturday after a cyber-attack affecting an electronic accommodation and luggage system.

The airport said a number of flights were delayed as a “technical problem” influenced the software provided on several airlines.

Brussels airport said on Friday night, cyber-attack means that passengers register and get on hand, and Brandenburg airport in Berlin reported longer waiting times due to the problem.

RTX, who owns Collins Aerospace software provider, said he was “aware of his cyber interruption” on his system in “Airport Selection” and was working to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

The company added: “The impact is limited to customer e -accommodation and luggage drops and can be mitigated with manual registration operations.”

It states that its muse software – which allows various airlines to use the same registration offices and gates to board an airport instead of demanding their own – has been affected.

The BBC understands that British Airways works as normal using a reserve system, but that most other airlines operating by Heathrow are affected.

A spokesman for the National Center for Cybersecurity said: “We work with the Collins aerospace space and have affected the United Kingdom airports, along with a department for colleagues for transport and law enforcement, to fully understand the impact of the incident.”

The European Commission, which plays a role in the management of airspace across Europe, said it “carefully monitors the cyberattack”.

A spokesman added that there was no indication of a “widespread or heavy” attack and that he was working with airlines and airports to “restore operations and support of passengers”.

Hundreds of flights were delayed at airports on Saturday, according to Flight Tracker FlightAware.

Dublin Airport said this and cork airport had a “minor impact” from the cyber-attack, with some airlines executing manual registration processes.

Lucy Spencer said he was in line to register for Malaysia Airlines flight for more than two hours, and this staff manually marked luggage and check the passengers by phone.

“We were told to use the boarding pass on our phone, but when we got to the gates, they did not work – now they sent us back to the registration gate,” she told the BBC of Terminal 4 of Heathrow, adding that he could see hundreds of people queue.

Another passenger, Monazza Aslam, said she was sitting on the asphalt for more than an hour “without an idea when we will fly” and has already missed her relationship in Doha.

“I am in Heathrow with my elderly parents from 05:00,” she said, adding, “Hungry and tired.”

Johnny Lal, who had to fly to Bombay for his mother -in -law’s funeral on Saturday, said he and his family would already miss their flight.

He told the BBC that his mother “can’t walk one step without her (mobility) scooter”, but that Heathrow’s employees failed to provide her with one. “They just tell us that systems are reduced.”

Luke Ager-Joienes said that although the tails in Terminal 3 are “much larger than normal”, the airline for his flight to the US and the airport “seem to be prepared and tails are moving much faster than I was afraid.”

He added: “They also call specific flights and choose people from the queue to ensure that they do not miss their flights.”

Heathrow said additional staff was subjected to registration areas to help minimize the interruption.

“We advise passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline before traveling to the airport and arriving not three hours before a long flight or two hours for a home flight.”

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said he was aware of the incident and “receives regular updates and monitoring of the situation.”

EasyJet and Ryanair, who do not work outside Heathrow but are among the largest airlines in Europe, said they work as usual.

Brussels Airport said it would have a “major influence on flight graphics”, including cancellation and delay.

The combined aviation safety organization in Europe, Eurocontrol, said airline operators were asked to cancel half of their flight schedules to and from the airport between 04:00 GMT on Saturday and 2:00 on Monday due to the interruption.

In a separate incident, Dublin’s airport terminal has open After a security signal. The suspicious luggage was marked on the guard (Irish police) on Saturday, which evacuated the terminal as a “precaution”.

Traveling journalist Simon Calder said “any interruption is potentially serious” in Heathrow, given that this is the most busy airport in Europe and that “departure control is a really complicated business”.

He said to the BBC: “All these things are interconnected, so a little problem in Brussels, in Berlin … People are starting to lack connections, planes and passengers and pilots are not where they are intended to be, and things can get worse before they improve.”

Just last July Global IT crash due to a defective software update from Cybersecurity Company Crowdstrike caused a break of aviationgrounding flights in the US.

At that time, analysts said the incident emphasized how the industry could be vulnerable to digital problems.

Although there are unfounded accusations that spread that this cyber-attack was made by hackers sponsored by the Kremlin, all major hacks in the last few years have been committed by criminal gangs more interested in extracting money from their victims.

Extracter banks make hundreds of millions of dollars a year by stealing data or using Ransomware to cause chaos and derive ransom in bitcoin from their victims.

It is too early to know who is behind this attack. Some cybersecurity experts have suggested that this may be a ransom attack, but keep in mind that they can also be carried out by state -sponsored participants.

Collins Aerospace has not yet commented publicly on the nature or origin of the hack.

Many hacker gangs are headquartered in Russia or other former Soviet countries, some of which are believed to have ties with the Russian state.

But there were many arrests elsewhere, while British and American teenagers were accused of carrying out some recent major cyber-attacks against casinos in Las Vegas, M&S, cooperative and transport to London.

Liberal -democrat MP Kalum Miller said the government should make a statement whether they believe the Kremlin was guilty.

He referred to Russian military aircraft entering Estonian airspace on Friday, adding that “the government must urgently determine whether Vladimir Putin is now attacking our cyber systems.”