Birmingham Airport website crash sparks new investigation weeks after 'Russian hack' claim

Birmingham Airport website crash leaves holidaymakers and relatives struggling to access arrival and departure information ahead of flights last night (7 August).

It comes weeks after Russians claim they hacked the site. An investigation is now underway into the unexpected fault.

The Birmingham Airport (BHX) site was back up and running as normal today (8 August), at the peak of the Summer Holiday season. Hours earlier, officials were apologising to passengers for "intermittent access."

In an announcement on its social media channels at around 7pm last night, a BHX spokesperson wrote: "Apologies to our customers affected by the intermittent access to our website. Our support teams are working to resolve this issue asap, we thank you for your patience."

A BHX spokesperson said this morning that a probe was being carried out: "We are aware of attempts to disrupt our website. We are investigating."

Anonymous Russian hackers claimed they were targeting Birmingham Airport and London City Airport websites in co-ordinated cyber attacks in mid July. Anonymous Russia claimed to be behind a BHX website attack at the time.

It is unclear whether the hack was genuine but at the time, Birmingham Airport acknowledged that "some people reported our website has been loading slowly this afternoon", adding that it was "investigating".

A group of hackers known as NoName, who are pro-Russia and Vladimir Putin, have claimed credit for disruption to UK airport websites this Summer. London City Airport's website was hit with an error message as people were unable to access the site temporarily in May and again in July.

The government warned in April that Russian hackers were trying to “cause maximum damage to the UK’s critical national infrastructure”. Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden said "vital energy plants" like power stations were being targeted.