Hanjin server shutdown delays 39 airline flights

Hanjin Group’s online server was down for at least four hours from Sunday night to early Monday morning, delaying 39 of the carriers’ flights.

The defect on the internal network that overlooks the group’s websites and operation tools started around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Hanjin Group confirmed that the incident was not the result of a cyberattack, but a technical accident that occurred during a facility inspection.

“The battery that temporarily keeps the system running during examination suddenly turned off and it took time for us to reboot the system after that” a Hanjin spokesman explained. The power was restored about 2:20 a.m. Operations were fully running by 4 and affiliate websites were relaunched at about 7 a.m.

A total 39 flights of Hanjin subsidiaries Korean Air and Jin Air departing for overseas were affected. Domestic flights were not, as planes generally don’t depart that time of day.

Korean Air’s flight KE630 from Bali to Korea was postponed for 12 hours and 35 minutes. After the delay of the server breakdown, the flight was again grounded after it became stuck between the local airport’s curfew that prohibits planes from taking off and landing between 2 and 7 a.m. Korean Air offered hotel accommodations and meals to the flight’s 219 passengers.

Takeoffs for the other flights were postponed from one to four hours. Some setbacks occurred because the process of issuing plane tickets to passengers was halted while the system was down. Other procedures, like checking in passengers at the gates, had to be done manually which also prolonged boarding.

Customers also were unable to go onto the carrier’s website. The group’s affiliate Hanjin Transportation’s website was also down, which means customers couldn’t check on their parcels.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]