Top U.S. pipeline outage impacts aviation network

American Airlines says it has been impacted by the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline

The airline says it has added a stop on two long-haul flights out of Charlotte North Carolina, because of a fuel supply shortage due to the recent colonial pipeline outage.

American says its daily flight from Charlotte to Honolulu will now stop in Dallas. Passengers will be required to change planes before flying onto Honolulu, while its daily flight from Charlotte to London will stop in Boston for additional fuel.

American is the first U.S. airline to report an impact from the attack on the Colonial pipeline, which carries nearly half the fuel consumed along the U.S. East Coast.

They’ve stated that that the two impacted flights are expected to return to the original schedule on May 15.

Why the country’s biggest fuel pipeline system has shutdown:

One of the United States’ major fuel pipeline operators has shut its entire network following a cyber attack that involved ransomware.

Colonial Pipeline, the source of nearly half of the US east coast’s fuel supply, said they had engaged a cyber security firm to help the investigation and contacted law enforcement and federal agencies after the attack.

The biggest U.S. gasoline pipeline won’t resume full operations for at least several more days due to a ransomware cyberattack blamed on a shadowy criminal network called DarkSide.

The attack on the Colonial Pipeline is one of the most disruptive digital ransom schemes ever reported.

While the impact remains to be quantified, the pipeline shutdown will reduce fuel availability in the near term, push up prices and force refiners to cut production because they have no way to ship the gas.

On Monday, the privately-owned company said it was working on restarting in small phases with “the goal of substantially restoring operational service by the end of the week.