Investigation Rules Out Cyber Attack: This Is What Caused the Greek Airline Crash

Ten days after the serious aviation incident in Greece, during which, as you may recall, the country's airspace was silenced due to a communication frequency issue, the investigative committee's report on the incident has been published.

Greek Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Christos Dimas published the report's results last night (January 13, 2026), stating that there was no evidence of a cyberattack and that the issue was caused by a technical failure.

"Digital Noise" and Equipment Flooding

According to the experts' report, the source of the malfunction was "digital noise" resulting from modernization processes across multiple interconnected communication systems. This combination led to the unintentional activation and continuous transmission of numerous transmitters, and to the suspension of essential communication links.

Photo: Amit Cotler

The committee notes that a full reset of the systems was performed via resynchronization and repeated reboots. For flight safety reasons, severe restrictions were imposed during the incident, including airspace closures and the activation of emergency procedures.

The restoration of services was carried out gradually, with full service restored at 16:53 Greek time after an eight-hour outage. As mentioned, no evidence of a cyberattack or malicious external intervention was found.

The committee was chaired by the Head of the Greek Civil Aviation Authority and included representatives from the National Cyber ​​Authority, the General Staff of the Hellenic Army, the Communications and Postal Authority, Eurocontrol, as well as an observer from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

Meanwhile, the Greek State News Agency reported the resignation of the head of the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA), Giorgos Saounatsos , which he submitted today (January 14, 2026) to the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. An interim director has been appointed to the position until the process of identifying and appointing a new head of the Civil Aviation Authority is completed.