A man in his 40s has been arrested in the UK over a ransomware attack that disrupted airports across Europe, causing delays and cancellations over the weekend. The National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed the arrest in West Sussex under the Computer Misuse Act, relating to a cyberattack on Collins Aerospace’s check-in systems.
The attack, which began on Friday, affected airports including Brussels, Berlin, Dublin and London Heathrow. Passengers faced long queues and boarding pass failures, forcing airlines to use manual check-in methods.
“Although this arrest is a positive step, the investigation into this incident is in its early stages and remains ongoing,” Paul Foster, deputy director of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said.
RTX Corporation, Collins Aerospace’s parent company, confirmed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that ransomware caused the breach but did not detail the malware or attackers. The affected software operates on “customer-specific networks” and led to flight disruptions as clients switched to backup procedures.
European cybersecurity agency ENISA first confirmed ransomware as the cause of the outage earlier this week. The incident shows the urgent need for stronger cybersecurity in critical transport infrastructure.
The NCA continues to investigate, working with international partners, while RTX has not commented further.