If you were flying through Heathrow last weekend, chances are your trip didn’t go as planned. What should’ve been a routine Saturday at Europe’s busiest airport turned into hours of queues, delays, and plenty of frayed tempers. The reason? Not fog, not strikes – but a cyberattack.
On September 20th, hackers hit Collins Aerospace’s MUSE check-in system, the backbone software that helps airlines process passengers and bags. With the system down, staff at Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin had to dig out the old-school methods: handwritten bag tags, manual boarding, and painfully slow check-in desks.
Imagine waiting three hours just to drop off your suitcase, only to find out your flight might still be delayed. That’s exactly what thousands of travelers faced. One passenger heading to Thailand described it bluntly: “Only two desks were staffed… didn’t know it was a cyberattack until four hours later.”
Why This Cyberattack Hit So Hard
The scary part isn’t just the disruption – it’s what the disruption reveals.
Airports today run on a web of digital systems. From kiosks printing boarding passes to scanners that track your luggage, most of it is invisible until it stops working. The MUSE system is one of those “silent engines” that nobody thinks about until it crashes. And when it does, the whole process — check-in, boarding, baggage – clogs instantly.
Cybersecurity experts are calling this a wake-up call. If one software outage at one supplier can throw multiple airports into chaos, what happens if attackers go bigger next time?
Best Practices - Data Breach Incident Response Plan
The Ripple Effect Across Europe
At Heathrow, passengers were told not to turn up more than three hours early for long-haul flights. Brussels Airport admitted flights were being canceled outright. Berlin Brandenburg spoke of “technical issues” and “longer waiting times,” – which is a polite way of saying: expect lines around the block.
Meanwhile, Collins Aerospace confirmed it was dealing with a ransomware attack. Its parent company, RTX, later admitted the software runs on customer-specific networks, separate from its main systems. That means each airport will recover at its own pace – messy, patchy, and stressful for anyone traveling.
Bigger Than Just Delays
For travelers, this meant stress, missed connections, and ruined plans. For the aviation industry, it meant something else entirely: exposure.
This incident proved how digitally fragile airports can be. Think about it – airlines, airports, baggage handlers, security systems, and IT vendors all depend on each other. If one link snaps, the whole chain breaks.
Cyber experts point to three big lessons:
- Don’t rely on a single point of failure.
- Make backup systems more than a checkbox – actually test them under pressure.
- Stop taking vendor promises at face value; demand proof of cybersecurity standards.
What Travelers Can Do Next Time
We can’t control cyberattacks, but we can prepare ourselves:
- Always check flight status online before leaving home.
- Follow your airline or airport on social media for live updates.
- Travel lighter when possible — fewer checked bags, fewer headaches.
- Print or save boarding passes and confirmations in case kiosks go dark.
It won’t erase the frustration, but it can save you from being caught completely off guard.
Here is a list of most Common Types of Cyber Attacks and how prevent them.
Final Thought
The Heathrow cyberattack wasn’t just another travel disruption. It was a reminder that in 2025, aviation security isn’t just about runways and control towers – it’s about firewalls and software patches.
Passengers lost hours and holidays, but airports lost something else: a bit of public trust. If one attack can do this much damage, the industry has no choice but to get tougher, smarter, and faster at building cyber resilience.
Because in today’s world, grounded planes and stranded passengers don’t just mean inconvenience. They mean vulnerability.