Cyberattack Forces Airline to Cancel Flights in Alaska

The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
December 22, 2019US News
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Cyberattack Forces Airline to Cancel Flights in Alaska
An airplane parks at an airport. (Ken Yam/Unsplash)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—RavnAir canceled at least a half-dozen flights in Alaska on Saturday—at the peak of holiday travel—following what the company described as “a malicious cyberattack” on its computer network.

The cancellations affected around 260 passengers, according to company spokeswoman Debbie Reinwand.

The regional carrier canceled all flights involving its Dash 8 aircraft until noon “because the cyberattack forced us to disconnect our Dash 8 maintenance system and its back-up,” the company said in a written statement.

The airline serves more than 100 communities in Alaska, many of which are not accessible by road.

The company is working with the FBI, other authorities and a cybersecurity company to restore systems.

RavnAir Alaska later announced that it will operate a normal afternoon schedule on its Dash-8 flights.

“We will be trying to add flights where we can over the next two days,” the company said in a statement released at 1 p.m. local time. “We have, where possible, re-booked passengers on other flights.”

PenAir flights and RavnAir Connect flights were still operating normally on back-up systems, Reinwand said.

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