Operations at the Kelowna, B.C., airport (YLW) were disrupted Tuesday evening after its passenger information screens and public address systems were overtaken in a terrorist cyberattack.
The incident began about 5:15 p.m., when
could be seen and heard throughout the airport.
A message took over flight information screens announcing the system was “Hacked By Mutariff Siberislam,” also known online as Siber
Islam. There was also a
message declaring “Israel lost the war, Hamas won the war honorably.”
The hackers also referred to U.S. President Donald Trump as a pig.
Simultaneously, chants and music in Arabic rang out over the public address system, causing confusion among passengers in the main terminal.
B.C. Conservative MLA and critic
for public safety and the solicitor general, Macklin McCall, posted a shot of one of the screens on X, saying: “Terrorist propaganda has no place in B.C.”
🚨BREAKING: Kelowna airport loudspeakers play Arabic chants and screens show pro-Hamas messages. ⁰⁰Terrorist propaganda has no place in BC. ⁰⁰This security failure is embarrassing and UNACCEPTABLE.https://t.co/JVvSN0zQoi
— Macklin McCall (@mack4change) October 15, 2025
Phillip Elchitz, YLW director of operations, told B.C. media outlet
that airport staff quickly restored the flight information display system. However, the public address system remained down, forcing airline staff to communicate with megaphones.
B.C. radio station
reports that YLW’s CEO Sam Sammadar spoke on their morning show Wednesday, saying: “We were obviously concerned about if there potentially was a specific threat against the airport, and the safety of our passengers and the crew.”
Sammadar told the
that the airport has a response protocol to deal with cyberattacks. “Those are plans we rehearsed, we practiced on, we were able to isolate it very, very quickly.”
The hack was isolated to public information messaging, he said, and “didn’t migrate to any other portions of the airport or the aviation system.”
He added that the RCMP determined the hack was not a threat against the airport or aviation, which allowed the airport to continue operating Tuesday night.
Two flights were delayed. One flight was delayed for two hours, the other by four.
An am1150 website
said a review of social media accounts associated with Mutariff Siberislam showed a history of hacking billboards, news websites and TV channels, and municipal systems around the world with similar messages in recent months.
Samaddar also said the attack was reported to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security in Ottawa for an independent investigation.
Airport operations returned to normal on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile,
reported that a similar airport hack occurred at the airport in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Harrisburg airport spokesperson Scott Miller said the message appearing there “was political in nature and did not contain any threats against the airport, our tenants, airlines, or passengers. The PA system was shut off, and the incident is under investigation by police.”
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