Zurich Airport considering legal action over IT outage
Airlines had to cancel 132 flights, impacting around 10,000 passengers.
Keystone / Gaetan Bally
Zurich Airport is contemplating legal action following Friday's IT mishap, which disrupted operations and caused significant financial damage. The extent of the financial impact is still being assessed.
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An airport spokeswoman informed Swiss public radio, SRF, on Monday that Zurich Airport is currently analyzing the incident to determine the damage and whether to pursue legal action against those responsible.
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is also assessing the financial repercussions of the IT breakdown in collaboration with its insurance company and partners. However, legal action against the IT company is not being considered since the breakdown did not affect SWISS systems.
132 flights cancelled
The global IT failure, caused by a botched update from the US cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, severely disrupted operations at Zurich Airport on Friday. Airlines had to cancel 132 flights, impacting around 10,000 passengers. Fortunately, no passengers were stranded overnight; they were either accommodated in hotels or flew later.
The IT breakdown affected 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide. In addition to airports, the glitch also impacted supermarkets, banks, hospitals, TV stations, and other organizations.
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