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Lufthansa’s Global Fleet Grounded by Four Snapped Cables

  • Passengers were unable to board after widespread IT failures
  • Europe’s biggest carrier operates around 700 aircraft
A grounded Lufthansa airliner at Berlin airport on Feb. 15.
A grounded Lufthansa airliner at Berlin airport on Feb. 15.Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
Updated on

Grounding one of the world’s largest airline fleets took little more than four snapped Internet cables in a sleepy Frankfurt suburb.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG passengers from Tokyo to New York were unable to board flights Wednesday after workers accidentally drilled through fiber cables buried some 16 feet below ground in Eschersheim.