The arrest of a man in southern England following a cyberattack that crippled check-in systems at major European airports underscores the mounting risks posed by digital sabotage in an era where aviation increasingly relies on interconnected technologies. While the investigation remains in its early stages, the scale of the incident has renewed concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to malicious actors, whether motivated by money, politics, or simple disruption.

Between September 19 and 21, airports in London, Berlin, and Brussels experienced widespread technical breakdowns that caused massive delays for passengers. The outages originated from a breach targeting Collins Aerospace software, which is integral to passenger check-in, boarding, and baggage handling across Europe.

Airline staff were forced to revert to manual processes – handwriting boarding passes, inputting data on backup laptops, and improvising to keep flights on schedule. Travelers described long queues stretching across terminals and hours of uncertainty, with some flights delayed and others canceled altogether.

The disruption highlighted how dependent modern air travel has become on integrated digital systems and how quickly their failure cascades into logistical chaos.

On September 23, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed that a man in his forties had been arrested in West Sussex on suspicion of committing computer misuse offenses. Although his identity has not been released, authorities confirmed he was later released on conditional bail.

Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s national cybercrime unit, emphasized that while........

© Blitz