Thousands of travellers found themselves stranded across Europe on Sunday after a catastrophic failure of radio frequencies brought Greece’s airspace to a near standstill.
The crisis unfolded when communications crucial for air traffic control were compromised, grounding flights and disrupting air travel for an extended duration.
According to Greece’s Transport Minister, Christos Dimas, the widespread shutdown was the result of a significant radio communications failure. While the incident was classified as ‘very serious,’ Dimas reassured the public that passenger safety was never compromised.
‘It does not appear to be a cyberattack,’ he said during an appearance on public broadcaster ERT, noting that investigations into the incident are ongoing, as reported by The Independent.
The problems began on Sunday when noise interference was detected across multiple air traffic communication channels, including backup systems.
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This alarming disruption prompted the Greek Civil Aviation Authority to halt operations, leading to an immediate backlog as incoming flights were diverted to several nearby countries. The knock-on effect left thousands of travellers stranded at airports, uncertain of when or how their journeys would resume, as reported by The Independent.
In a reaction to the incident, the Air Traffic Controllers’ Association has reiterated its calls for the urgent modernization and replacement of outdated air traffic control equipment.
This outage has raised serious concerns about the capacity and reliability of Greece’s aviation infrastructure, which is critical not only for domestic travel but also for a country heavily reliant on tourism.
As a response to the failure, the Greek government has launched both a judicial inquiry and an internal investigation to ascertain the specific causes of the outage, with a focus on preventing future occurrences.
Flight operations began to resume gradually as the situation was stabilised, although the backlog caused significant delays that travelers are yet to navigate.
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Picture: Tomisti/Wikimedia Commons ( Image of Thessaloniki Airport used for illustrative purposes)
