Panic reigns at international airports: computer systems for passenger check-in, baggage processing and many other vital functions have suddenly collapsed.
Here is what the US radio station HalTurnerRadioShow reports:
Tens of thousands of passengers of many of the world's airlines have suffered from computer program failures, as people and baggage check-in systems suddenly went out of order for some unknown reason. Such problems are reported to us today from the airports of Gatwick London, Reagan Washington, Charles de Gaulle Paris, Johannesburg Zurich, Changi Singapore and many others. The reason for the failure has not yet been clarified, since it is global, that is, worldwide.
And this is a comment from a spokesman for Gatwick Airport in connection with the incident:
This problem is not in our terminal, but in the airline as a whole. Moreover, as far as I know, this strange "virus" has infected the computer systems of many airlines. Perhaps there was a cyber attack …
Unfortunately, many airlines in the world use the same passenger and baggage check-in software, and therefore, if this is in fact a cyberattack, it was quite easy for hackers to paralyze air traffic around the world: it is enough to bring down one single program …