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AIBU?

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Original poster

Air traffic control— cyber attack?

133 replies

Stableunicorns · 08/09/2026 16:54

DH is on a work trip abroad. Due to fly back to London this evening but his flight has been cancelled due to “air traffic control issues”. Currently rescheduled to tomorrow morning.

I look online and find references to “delays and cancellations”. But given that his flight has been completely cancelled, not just delayed, hours in advance, suggests to me that there’s a massive problem and it’s being downplayed by the authorities.

AIBU to think there’s been a cyber attack and we’re not being told the full story?

OP posts:
DooDallyHallie · 14/09/2026 00:58

This reply has been withdrawn

Post withdrawn at author's request

notimagain · 14/09/2026 05:04

Thanks for the info.

I've been watching arguments discussions about delays, NATS vs the rest of Eurocontrol in another place..there's a bit of apple v oranges going on.

For example we know French ATC regularly generate delays by industrial action but that's prewarned and can be planned for.

I think feeling is NATS generally do well but when the system really falls over it's obviously with no warning and really catches people out.

BTW looping back to something that came up in earlier debate, I belatedly remembered Liverpool is one of the few UK airports where NATS doesn't supply the local controllers...that might explain what was said on TV, but would have had no bearing on the impact there of the national ATC failure.

notimagain · 18/09/2026 15:17

Preliminary report out:

".... confirmed that this incident was unrelated to the major system outage in August 2023. He also dismissed speculation that it was caused by military intervention.
“This was a software issue in a specific part of our flight data system, that we have traced to a small subsection of coding,” he said. “The issue has been identified and mitigation is in place while a permanent fix is safety tested and deployed.”

https://www.nats.aero/news/nats-publishes-preliminary-report-on-technical-incident-of-8-september/

NATS publishes preliminary report on technical incident of 8 September - NATS

NATS provides safe and efficient air traffic services and innovative solutions to UK and international airports, airlines and governments.

https://www.nats.aero/news/nats-publishes-preliminary-report-on-technical-incident-of-8-september/

Nanasueathome · 18/09/2026 16:13

Nanasueathome · 09/09/2026 09:11

Ok
ive just spoken to my son who is ATC at Swanwick
he was working yesterday afternoon
says it was fixed yesterday evening but there is a flight backlog
Apparently, data for some flights was coming in incorrectly and they couldn’t fix it

in time

As I originally stated, it was a data issue

Boomer55 · 18/09/2026 16:22

Stableunicorns · 08/09/2026 16:54

DH is on a work trip abroad. Due to fly back to London this evening but his flight has been cancelled due to “air traffic control issues”. Currently rescheduled to tomorrow morning.

I look online and find references to “delays and cancellations”. But given that his flight has been completely cancelled, not just delayed, hours in advance, suggests to me that there’s a massive problem and it’s being downplayed by the authorities.

AIBU to think there’s been a cyber attack and we’re not being told the full story?

Nope. A tech blip.

Shedmistress · 21/09/2026 12:11

Another one today, which is annoying again as I am due to take people to the airport first thing tomorrow to go back to the UK.

Netcurtainnelly · 21/09/2026 12:23

Shedmistress · 21/09/2026 12:11

Another one today, which is annoying again as I am due to take people to the airport first thing tomorrow to go back to the UK.

Scotland isn't it?

notimagain · 21/09/2026 12:38

Netcurtainnelly · 21/09/2026 12:23

Scotland isn't it?

Show quote history

Scottish/possibly also part of their feed into Atlantic system, supposedly a short glitch,.fixed but will take time for traffic to recover.

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