Sabotage Ruled Out as Investigation into Greek ATC Outage Is Opened | Aviation International News

Sabotage Ruled Out in Greek ATC Outage Investigation

Technical malfunction is the suspected cause of January 4’s air traffic control systems failure

Athens airport with control tower in background, daylight — Athens International Airport, Greece’s largest airport, was severely impacted by the day’s events.

By Charlotte Bailey • News Reporter

January 8, 2026

The Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) has no initial reason to believe last Sunday’s air traffic control service outage was caused by foul play, the regulator has revealed, as an investigation “to clarify the exact cause of the problem” has been initiated.

Just before 9 a.m. on the morning of January 4, the primary and backup communications systems serving Greece’s Athens Area Control Centre failed, affecting almost the entirety of the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR). The HCAA described the interruption as “a form of continuous ‘noise’ interference in the listening of [multiple] frequencies, originating from unintentional signal emissions of the service’s transmitters.” This was accompanied by malfunctions in the telephone lines and data circuits.

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