Air traffic control— cyber attack?

There are some significant differences in the detail between what happened in 2023 and yesterday..

It might just be me but I think it's worth getting actual confirmation of what happened yesterday before making an assumption this is a repeat of the 2023 event and therefore UK authorities and others didn't fix it, same attack vector was available, etc.etc etc etc

I think I'd prefer to believe it's a cyber attack by a known enemy who recently threatened us openly and is known to use cyber warfare than that exactly the same problem caused this chaos and they were so incompetent that they didn't make that impossible after last time.

I've not yet seen the definitive reason stated, other than it being tech, so be interested to see/hear more.

Certainly the non-unique waypoint naming that directly caused the issue 3 years ago was meant to have been addressed worldwide some time ago.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Tbh it was my first thought too. I don’t know why it’s such a big leap to suggest a cyber attack.
At this point why wouldn’t it be is more the question surely?

Not a cyber attack. Another rogue flight plan code - so the same thing that caused the issues a few years ago - and they know who uploaded it and it's definitely not Russia, Israel or anyone else dodgy. It is fixed now but with so many aircraft out of position it's going to take a while to get back to normal.

?

This thread aged well. Some of you look a little stupid now!

Glad he got back..some people suffered some very long days yesterday..

There was a Air Canada LHR-Vancouver flight that left very very late and (last time I looked) had been replanned to go via Toronto, presumably for a crew change to allow passengers to get to destination.

My poor DH landed after a 10 hour flight and sat on the Heathrow runway for 4 and a half hours. They ran out of food. It then took 2 hours to get his baggage as the baggage screens which tell you your carousel were down. I'm just glad he made the last train out of Paddington!

UK is filling the board today (normally featuring China/Moscow/NewYork)

What a nightmare for everyone affected. Have to say I immediately thought of a cyber attack too because it’s such an obviously disruptive thing to do. But let’s see. Hope that everyone gets to where they need to be quickly and safely.

DD just been told flight cancelled - no idea about rescheduling as yet - not offered a hotel just go home n wait for news

6E001 Mumbai to Heathrow diverted to Amsterdam
BA198 Mumbai diverted to Amsterdam
CI081 Taipei to Heathrow diverted to Frankfurt
TK1971 Istanbul to Heathrow diverted to Brussels
SQ 308 Singapore to Heathrow diverted to Paris

My friend is currently stuck at Heathrow - they have been sitting on the plane for 5 hours but have just been told to deplane. Luckily she has friends in the area to stay with but they don't know when she can continue her journey. It's a mess.

For those interested in arrivals into either Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted it's still not good news - From Eurocontrol,.
times GMT...Hopefully they'll improve.

Aerodromes:

EGGW (London Luton)
Arrivals regulated at a recovery rate due to ATC Equipment (Data processing issues).
High delays.

EGKK (London Gatwick)
Arrivals regulated at a reduced rate due to ATC Equipment (Data processing issues).
Aerodrome not available for arrivals between 1500-2200.
High delays

EGLL (London Heathrow)
Arrivals regulated at a reduced rate due to ATC Equipment (Data processing issues).
Aerodrome not available for arrivals between 1400-2200.
High delays

EGLC (London City)
Arrivals regulated at a recovery rate due to ATC Equipment (Data processing issues).
High delays.

EGSS (London Stansted)
Arrivals regulated at a reduced rate due to ATC Equipment (Data processing issues).
Aerodrome not available for arrivals between 1700-2200.
High delays.

My DH works at Manchester. He text a couple of hours ago to say he had just been on a plane and was speaking to the pilot. They were all boarded and ready to go and been told they are 45th in the queue. He said they had another 6 planes all boarded and waiting for take off slots. Poor passengers and crew.

Redundant systems and cyber recovery runbooks are actually designed to restore things very quickly in the event of an outage, for whatever reason, so again no indication either way as to cause. The delays are the result of the backlog even a short glitch/hack would put into a system like ATS. No hysteria here, just calm, rational logic from someone that designs such solutions, which react quickly to an outage, from whatever cause. It doesn't relaly matter to the OPs DH and other passengers, the important thing is the ATC system halted as designed when something went wrong - human error, technical issue, cyber incident - rest is just recovery and resetting the system.

The Israel timing makes me think there has been some sort of deliberate interference here but, again, who knows.

I was stuck in similar one 3 years ago - although end of August
DD is currently stuck on a plane at Manchester airport - been told likely to be cancelled - which is more than a bit annoying as I’m waiting for her and DGD at the other end!

I work in cyber security and there are a whole host of other reasons for the glitch before I’d consider a cyber attack.

It would be an extremely difficult system to get access to and, while the “rewards” would be huge the possibility of success is extremely low. Attackers are much more likely to go after utilities, banking etc.

Looks like LGW is moving for departures, we're starting to see departures ex-LHR...

Fingers crossed..but the backlog won't be pretty.

Given how quickly the system was fixed and made live again, I think it's unlikely to be a cyber attack.

It's more likely someone in NATS tech team is going to have to explain to their boss why they didn't test a piece of code properly, or unplugged that box they didn't think was important

But unfortunately the logistical effects on all the flights is going to take longer to sort.

Flight planning feed goes down for whatever reason.

Aircraft can't depart, ramp space fills up...

You may wish to head off into cyber attack territory,.I'm not inclined to think you have to go that way

NATS have shown before (and not that long ago) that their IT system in places isn't 100% robust and without any external nudge it can produce something like we have seen today.

Or maybe just calm, rational, non hysterical reasoning backed up by people who know the industry.