Fatalities linked to Optus Triple Zero disruption spark inquiry
At least three deaths are under investigation following an Optus outage that disrupted emergency access.
Optus is facing intense scrutiny after a technical fault disrupted access to Triple Zero in parts of Australia, with at least three fatalities reported. The outage followed a firewall upgrade on 18 September that interfered with emergency call routing in several states and territories.
Around 600 households were affected. The deaths of an infant, a 68-year-old woman and another individual are under investigation to determine whether the outage prevented them from receiving critical help.
Chief executive Stephen Rue apologised publicly on 21 September, admitting that procedures were not followed and that customer reports of failures were not properly escalated. He acknowledged Optus lacked internal monitoring to detect Triple Zero disruptions and called the failure ‘unacceptable’.
The company has launched an independent review, introduced compulsory escalation of all future emergency call reports, and committed to real-time monitoring of Triple Zero traffic. Federal and state leaders condemned the incident, with South Australia’s premier calling it ‘unprecedented incompetence’.
Authorities are now weighing regulatory consequences, while wider debate grows over infrastructure resilience, accountability and redundancy in the telecoms sector in Australia.
Would you like to learn more about AI, tech and digital diplomacy? If so, ask our Diplo chatbot!