On Thursday, Japan Airlines (JAL) said that it was hit by a cyber attack, causing flight delays and other issues.
There was no impact on flight safety, the airline confirmed.
According to the Associated Press, the issue began on Thursday when the company’s network connecting internal and external systems began malfunctioning.
The airline confirmed that the attack was intended to overwhelm the network system with massive transmissions of data. This caused the systems to begin malfunctioning, and could have caused the system to crash altogether.
Reportedly, the attack did not involve a virus or cause any customer data leaks, JAL said. It said that as of late morning, the cyberattack had delayed 24 domestic flights for more than 30 minutes.
JAL’s ticket sales for both domestic and international fights scheduled for departure on Thursday were suspended temporarily but resumed several hours later when the issue was resolved.
“For domestic flights departing today, the ‘Airport Standby’ service and ‘Same-Day Upgrade’ procedures via the JAL website and JAL app have been suspended. There have been delays and cancellations, so please check the website for the latest information,” the airline said in a statement on X.
In a follow-up post, JAL said, “There was a system malfunction with our network equipment today, but it has now been resolved.”
“As of now, flights for tomorrow, December 27th, are scheduled to operate as normal,” they added.
This is one of several incidents surrounding airlines to arise this week.
Earlier this week, American Airlines experienced an issue that grounded all flights. This was not due to a cyber attack.
According to the Associated Press, the order, which prevented planes from taking off, was issued at the airline’s request after it experienced trouble with its flight operating system, or FOS. The airline reportedly blamed technology from one of its vendors.
"A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning. That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed," the airline said in a statement. "We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning. It's all hands on deck as our team is working diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible."
Reportedly, only 36 percent of the airline's 3,901 domestic and international flights departed on time. Fifty-one flights were canceled, as well.
Additionally, this week, a Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. A horrific video of the crash circulated X.
More than 30 passengers died as a result.
Fox News reported that aviation and Ukrainian officials are placing the blame for the deadly crash on Russia (via Fox News):
Flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Officials did not immediately explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash came shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone activity has shut down airports in the area in the past and the nearest Russian airport on the plane's flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday night, Wall Street Journal reported that aviation-security firm Osprey Flight Solutions said the flight was "likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system.”
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