New Delhi, Friday, Nov 7: Flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport remained severely affected through Friday evening, with a five-hour disruption continuing to cripple departure schedules and ripple across connecting flights nationwide.
The chaos began earlier in the day after a suspected malware-induced overload in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system forced manual operations and delayed hundreds of flights. According to CNN-News18, investigators are probing whether the system failure was triggered by a targeted intrusion in automation software, affecting radar synchronisation and conflict-management modules.
Passengers at the country’s busiest airport faced mounting frustration as departure sequencing was manually coordinated by controllers. Airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, and Vistara reported cascading delays, with some flights held at the gate for hours and others diverted to nearby airports.
Sources said the ATC software displayed abnormal data surges and repetitive error loops, symptoms that cyber-forensics experts associate with malware-triggered overloads. The absence of real-time backup and outdated patches reportedly worsened the crisis, forcing aviation authorities into emergency response mode.
While the Airports Authority of India (AAI) confirmed the technical failure, it stopped short of calling it a cyberattack. Officials stressed that all findings are preliminary, though insiders have described the event as a “major red flag” for aviation cybersecurity in the national capital.
Operations are gradually stabilising, but the five-hour disruption has already left hundreds of passengers stranded, with airlines warning of residual delays through the night. If confirmed as a cyber incident, this would mark one of the most significant digital threats ever faced by India’s civil aviation network.
