Nationwide IT Crisis Shakes Netherlands: Flights Grounded, Emergency Services Disrupted

A network outage at the Dutch Ministry of Defence caused widespread IT failures in the Netherlands, grounding flights, disrupting police communications, and affecting several government services. The cause remains unknown, and authorities have not ruled out a cyber attack. The outage also impacted the Dutch Coast Guard and telecom company KPN.

Flights were grounded, civil servants locked out of their computers, and police officers resorted to texting in the Netherlands on Wednesday amid a network outage at the Ministry of Defence, causing major IT failures nationwide.

The cause and extent of the problems remain unclear, with Ministry of Defence spokesperson Laurens Bos confirming the issue traces back to one of their systems. The National Cybersecurity Centre has not yet determined if a cyber attack is responsible.

Travellers at Eindhoven Airport were stranded as flights from Ryanair and Transavia were canceled, and some passengers were bused to Brussels Airport. Schiphol Airport remained unaffected. Emergency workers' communication systems were impacted, and the Coast Guard was unreachable by phone or radio. Telecom company KPN also faced an outage, though its link to the Defence Ministry issue is uncertain.

(With inputs from agencies.)