An urgent preliminary examination into the “blackout” occurred on Sunday at the Greek airports was ordered by the head of the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office. At the same time, the stranded passengers seek ways to obtain compensation for delayed, cancelled or missing connection flights and any cost they were burdened with during the long hours they remained at the airports including spending the night in a hotel,
The Prosecutor assigned the investigation to the Electronic Crime Department, with the aim of determining whether the crime of dangerous interference with aircraft traffic has been committed and, if it is true that interference occurred on almost all frequencies of the Athens FIR, to identify where it came from.
24 hours after the “blackout” and the closure of FIR Athens, it remains unclear whether the massive interference of radio frequencies was due to malicious action and a cyberattack or it was caused by the old and not maintained equipment, as the Air Traffic controllers have warned many times in the last years even in summer 2025.
Alternate Transportation Minister, Konstantinos Kyranakis, admitted that the equipment is old, however, he foolishly added “we cannot replace it in just 9 months,” referring to the time he was appointed minister, and ignoring the fact that ruling New Democracy has been in power since summer 2019.
The “blackout” left thousands of passengers of domestic and international flights stranded at the Greek airports.
Even though the situation has normalized, as Greek media report on Monday, there are still problems and delays with international flights.
Passengers compensation
Passengers complained that they could not receive adequate information by the airlines and many had to spend the night in hotels which they paid from their own pockets. Others said that they had to purchase new tickets and some missed their connection flights.
In addition as there was no provision by the airlines, the stranded passengers had to pay for food, drinks and other things to cover their needs during the several hours they spent at the airports.
It looks as if the airlines refuse to come up for compensations saying the delays or flights cancellation was not their fault.
Citing government sources, state broadcaster ERT reported that “passengers have the right to claim compensation form the airlines, while the latter can claim compensation for the Greek state.”
So, how the stranded passengers will be compensated? From the airports managing companies, the Greek Civil Aviation Authority or the Greek Transportation Ministry?
Fir of all the cause of the issue has to be determined and then the compensation matter may be discussed.
PS Based on KTG knowledge of “Greek things”, stranded passengers may forget about compensation of any kind…
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Well, the government and ND must remit generous stipends to such tourists as were stranded. They are keeping the economy up.
We are affected by this and can only get a reasonable flight home to Edinburgh 3 days later. Have had to spend money on metro, food, hotel and replacement flights. We were directed to EasyJet app where the next available flight was not for a week and costs to get home on Monday were over £1000 with taking over 24 hours.
Does the transport minister -given the lack of safety regulations that caused the terrible train accident a few years ago- realise that warnings of Air Traffic Controllers need to be taken seriously and that the antiquated equipment must be replaced IMMEDIATELY? The government, i.e. the Greek taxpayer should compensate the passengers. Who is to blame is an academic discussion that must not affect safety of people.