Delays after the airport registration system

Heathrow is one of several European airports struck by a cyber attack affecting an electronic recording and luggage system.

The airport warned against possible delays due to a “technical problem” affecting the software provided by Collins Aerospace to several airlines.

Brussels airport said that cyber attack on Friday evening meant that passengers were recorded and were on board manually, while Brandenburg de Berlin airport also reported longer due to the problem.

RTX, who owns Collins Aerospace, said that he was “aware of a cyber -related disturbance” of his system in “Select Airports” and that he worked to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

The company has added: “The impact is limited to the electronic recording of customers and the lower luggage and can be attenuated with manual registration operations.”

He said the attack has hit its Muse software – which allows different airlines to use the same recording offices and boarding doors at an airport, rather than demanding theirs.

The BBC understands that British Airways works as normal using a rescue system, but that most other airlines operating in Heathrow have been affected.

Hundreds of flights have been delayed at Saturday airports, according to Flight Tracker Flightaware.

Dublin airport said that Cork airport and airport had a “minor impact” of cyber attacks, with airline implementation processes.

Lucy Spencer said she had laid down to check a flight from Malaysia Airlines for more than two hours, and that the staff manually marked the luggage and checked passengers by phone.

“They told us to use the boarding passes on our phone, but when we arrived at the doors they did not work-they have now returned to the recording door,” she told the BBC of Heathrow Terminal 4, adding that she could see hundreds of people.

Another passenger, Monazza Aslam, said that she had been sitting on the Tarmac for more than an hour “without any idea when we fly”, and had already missed her front in Doha.

“I am in Heathrow with my elderly parents since 5:00 am,” she said, adding: “We are hungry and tired.”

Johnny Lal, who was to go to Bombay for his mother-in-law’s funeral on Saturday, said he and his mother would now miss their flight.

He told the BBC that his mother “could not walk a step without his (mobility) scooter” but that Heathrow’s staff could not provide him with one. “They continue to tell us that the systems are declining.”

Luke AGGER-JOYNES said that the queues in Terminal 3 were “much larger than normal”, the airline for its American flight and the airport “seem to be prepared and the queues move much faster than I feared”.

He added: “They also call specific flights and come out of people in the queue to make sure they don’t miss their flights.”

Heathrow said additional staff were at hand in recording areas to help minimize disturbances.

“We advise passengers to check their flight status with their airline before going to the airport and arriving at the start of three hours before a long or two hour flight for an internal flight.”

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said she was aware of the incident and “obtained regular updates and monitored the situation”.

Easyjet and Ryanair, who do not work from Heathrow but are among the largest airlines in Europe, said they were running as usual.

Brussels Airport said there would be a “big impact on the flight calendar”, including cancellations and delays. Long queues and large crowds could be seen at the airport on Saturday morning.

The combined organization of European airline security, Eurocontrol, said that airline operators had been invited to cancel half of their flight hours to and from the airport between 04:00 GMT on Saturday and 2:00 a.m. on Monday due to the disruption.

Travel journalist Simon Calder said that “any disturbance is potentially serious” in Heathrow, since it is European airport in Europe, and that “departure control is a truly complex company”.

He told the BBC: “These things are all interconnected, so a little problem in Brussels, in Berlin … People are starting to miss connections, planes and passengers and pilots are not where they are supposed to be, and things can get worse before they improve.”

It was not until last September that a global IT accident due to a defective software update of the cybersecurity company Crowstrike disrupted the disruption of aviation, putting the grounds on the ground across the United States.

Analysts said at the time that the incident stressed how industry could be vulnerable to problems with digital systems.

Although there are unfounded accusations circulating that this cyber attack has been made by pirates sponsored by the Kremlin, all major hacks in recent years have been led by criminal gangs more interested in extracting money from their victims.

The extortion gangs have won hundreds of millions of dollars a year using ransomware to pay them large sums in cryptocurrency.

It is far too early to find out who is behind this attack. Some cybersecurity experts have suggested that this could be a ransomware attack, but note that they can also be perpetrated by actors sponsored by the state.

Collins Aerospace has not yet publicly commented on the nature or origin of hacking.

Many hacking gangs have its headquarters in Russia or other former Soviet countries, some of which would have links with the Russian state.

But there have been many arrests elsewhere, while British and American teenagers are accused of having made large recent cyber attacks against the Casinos de Las Vegas, M&S, cooperative and transport for London.

Additional report by Rachel Muller Heyndyk