Hundreds of Flights Cancelled When ‘Possible Cyberattack’ Hits Seattle Airport

Seattle airport
James D. Morgan / Contributor/ Getty
Amy Furr

The Port of Seattle and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) experienced a “possible cyberattack” on Saturday that caused significant issues for travelers.

Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled as officials tried to work out the issue, Fox 13 reported. Authorities encouraged people heading to the airport on Saturday to check with their airlines for updated information regarding their itineraries.

In a social media post on Saturday, SEA explained what was happening and gave further information.

“Earlier this morning the Port of Seattle experienced certain system outages indicating a possible cyberattack. The Port isolated critical systems and is in the process of working to restore full service and do not have an estimated time for return,” the post read:

In a subsequent message, SEA said, “We are working closely with appropriate authorities and partners to help travelers who may be impacted. If you are traveling today, please check with our airline partners for travel information and allow extra time to get to SEA and to your gate.”

King 5 reported on Saturday that the possible cyberattack took down internet, phone lines, and additional systems. The outlet noted at the time that officials had no estimate of when the problem would be resolved. At the time of the report, the outlet said 225 flights had been delayed and six were canceled:

In a social media post early Sunday, SEA said, “The Port of Seattle, including SEA Airport, continues to see system outages. There is not an estimated time for return and Port teams continue to work to restore full service”:

In July, the U.S. cybersecurity company known as CrowdStrike issued a faulty software update to computers with Microsoft Windows which grounded flights and caused big problems at airports all over the world, Breitbart News reported.

The article noted that “Cybersecurity officials have stated that the issues are not believed to be the result of a malicious cyberattack.”

“Instead, the problems stem from a misconfigured or corrupted update pushed out by cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike to its customers. The incident appears to only be affecting devices running the Windows operating system,” the report stated.

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