The put up Radio Glitch Grounds Greece: Old-fashioned Aviation Techniques Beneath Scrutiny gave the impression first on TD (Go back and forth Day by day Media) Go back and forth Day by day Media.
On Sunday, 4th January, travellers at airports during Greece discovered themselves stranded via what has sooner or later been made up our minds as a glitch affecting the rustic’s out of date aviation verbal exchange programs.
In keeping with a record revealed via Reuters on Monday, fifth January, air site visitors controllers at Athens Global Airport Eleftherios Venizelosere (AIA) had been guiding planes towards the runway when radio communications failed, bewilderingly changed via a high-pitched whistling noise.
Two controllers and a member of airport control at AIA who had been on responsibility all through the incidence mentioned that controllers virtually straight away misplaced touch with the majority of airplane inside the nation’s airspace on the time, together with a number of dozen airplane at the verge of touchdown.
Whilst the problem is still underneath investigation as of press time, the Greek Civil Aviation Authority is significantly taking a look on the out of date apparatus nonetheless in use in airports during the rustic.
Unparalleled, however…
As mavens interviewed via In-Cyprus identified, the peculiar whistling noise heard when communications went lifeless most often impact only one transmission centre at a time.
In a different way, those happen as remoted incidents which were effectively addressed prior to now.
Whilst Greek government say that this present state of affairs is exceptional, it can be recalled {that a} equivalent incident affected airport operations on a world reduce in July 2024.
If that’s the case, then again, it was once made up our minds that the breakdown was once brought about via a worm in the newest replace for cybersecurity answer CrowdStrike, a device utilized by almost each airport on this planet.
For the Greek state of affairs, then again, it’s turning into clearer that this would possibly not essentially be a device factor and investigators have severe doubts that the rustic’s airports had been hit via a web-based assault.
Certainly, the problem can have been because of one thing that has had to be addressed for some time now: communications programs at those airports have lengthy wanted upgrades if now not outright alternative.
At this time, Greek airports use circuits from nationwide telecommunications supplier OTE, which has confident the general public as of fifth January that the mentioned circuits are totally operational.
In spite of this, some mavens have identified that a lot of Greece’s airport communications infrastructure wishes severe refurbishment or whole alternative with fashionable, extra dependable apparatus.
It must be famous that the Greek Air Site visitors Controllers Union launched a remark pointing out: “Lately’s state of affairs didn’t get up unexpectedly; it was once pre-announced.”
The union has likewise demanded that airport officers behavior an instantaneous overhaul of facility programs during the rustic.
So, what occurs now?
As of Monday, the Greek govt has emphatically declared airport modernisation is recently ongoing and that the set up of latest communications apparatus national might be executed a while in 2028.
Officers additionally claimed that those new programs might be compliant with the related requirements set via the Eu Union for airport communications.
Paradoxically, as of December 2025, the Eu Fee in fact known as out the Greek govt for failing to put in force sure navigation procedures designed to spice up protection in low-visibility prerequisites.
For lots of airport staff during Greece, then again, any type of upgrades will come too little, too overdue.
As Affiliation of Greek Air Site visitors Controllers Pangiotis Psarros put it: “This incident as soon as once more exposes the essential weaknesses of out of date and underfunded air site visitors control infrastructure. Protection was once maintained due to human experience, however this can’t proceed to atone for systemic deficiencies.”
The put up Radio Glitch Grounds Greece: Old-fashioned Aviation Techniques Beneath Scrutiny gave the impression first on Go back and forth Day by day Media.
