UK man arrested in cyberattack that disrupted European airports, authorities say
Investigation into the disruption, which affected Heathrow and other hubs, continues as authorities release a suspect on conditional bail
A man in his 40s has been arrested in southern England on suspicion of offenses involving the misuse of computers in connection with a cyberattack that disrupted several European airports, including London Heathrow, authorities said Wednesday. The National Crime Agency said the suspect was held in West Sussex on Tuesday on suspicion of offenses involving the misuse of computers. He has been released on conditional bail.
The investigation comes as disruptions affected airports in Berlin, Brussels and London, with electronic systems used for check-in, boarding passes and baggage tagging impaired. Airline staff were forced to resort to handwritten boarding passes or to use backup laptops as the software services provided by Collins Aerospace faced outages. The U.S.-based company said on Saturday that it was dealing with a cyber-related disruption to its software at select airports in Europe, though it did not immediately identify a suspect or group behind the incident.
Collins Aerospace, a U.S.-based supplier of passenger-processing software, acknowledged a cyber-related disruption to its systems at select European airports. The precise scope and duration of the outage remained unclear on Wednesday. Experts cautioned that the attack could involve hackers, criminal organizations or state actors, noting that cyber threats to aviation infrastructure are a persistent global concern.
The disruptions appeared concentrated on a subset of airports, with many other European hubs reporting normal operations. Authorities emphasized that the investigation is ongoing and that, at this stage, no single suspect has been publicly identified as responsible. Cybercrime officials urged aviation operators and passengers to remain vigilant as the probe continues.