343,734 members - data leak claimed at French Aeronautics Federation

On 28 February 2026, the French Aeronautics Federation (Fédération Française d'Aéronautique, FFA) — the national body governing light and recreational aviation — disclosed that its membership database had been compromised. The breach was one of dozens reported across French sports and leisure federations during the first quarter of 2026, a wave largely traced to weaknesses in shared, ageing member-management software.

The intrusion targeted the FFA's "SMILE" platform, the central interface used to manage licence-holders and members. An attacker gained unauthorised access and was able to consult member records covering the period from 2002 to 2026 — historical archives stretching back roughly 24 years. In total, the data of 343,734 members was affected.

The exposed records reportedly included:

• Full names (surname and first name)
• Dates of birth
• Email addresses
• Postal addresses

The federation filed a criminal complaint and notified the French data-protection regulator (CNIL) of the personal-data breach. Because the leaked dataset offers complete, long-lived profiles of pilots and aviation enthusiasts, the main residual risk is targeted phishing and identity fraud against affected members. No ransom demand or financial-data exposure has been reported, and access to the affected system was reported as cut off following discovery.