Several European Airports Still Struggling After Cyberattack

Various European airports are still suffering from delays after a cyberattack caused chaos over the weekend.

The cyberattack took place on Friday night, targeting the systems provided by US-based manufacturing company Collins Aerospace. Collins' parent corporation, RTX, confirmed that the disruptions were "cyber-related," with the attack specifically hitting their MUSE software. This software is crucial to airport operations and passenger handling, as it allows major airports to check in passengers of different airlines using the same system.

In total, several major airports were affected, including London Heathrow, Dublin, Berlin-Brandenburg, and Brussels. On Saturday, Dublin delayed around 46% of their flights, while Brussels delayed 66% and Heathrow delayed 47%. On Sunday, Heathrow and Dublin seemed to improve their issues, but Brussels, Barcelona, and Frankfurt maintained high numbers of cancelations and delays.

Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world, remained relatively unaffected as the weekend progressed, with some delays and several cancelations, but the primary issue was longer check-in lines due to the manual processes.

Meanwhile, Brussels Airport was the most affected, with the problems persisting throughout the weekend and leaving around half of all passengers with delayed flights. Unfortunately, Brussels has been unable to work around the cyberattack, leading to large numbers of delays on Saturday and Sunday. At least 60 flights scheduled for today have already been canceled, and the airport is urging passengers to check their flight status before coming to the airport.

To solve the problem, RTX instructed those affected to shift to manual check-in while they work on fixing the problem. However, Collins has still failed to provide an updated version of the software.

Airports across Europe are requesting passengers to check their flights before arriving at the airport to avoid inconveniences due to cancelations or major delays, but most of the airports affected have found other workarounds by now.

Fact of the Day (The Fact Site): In order to protest the high tariffs enforced by a U.K. censorship board, a filmmaker sent in a 10-hour “movie” of white paint drying. They were required to watch the entire film.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): You learn how to be a gracious winner and an outstanding loser. (Joe Namath)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Lugubrious (adj, loo-GOO-bree-us) - Lugubrious is a formal word used chiefly to describe something that is very sad especially in an exaggerated or insincere way. The word can also describe something that shows or expresses gloom.

In a Sentence: The movie’s stunning cinematography could not make up for the lugubrious and plodding plot.

Image credit to Shutterstock