diff --git a/server/core/gateway.cc b/server/core/gateway.cc
index 3482315fb..91da2c46d 100644
--- a/server/core/gateway.cc
+++ b/server/core/gateway.cc
@@ -493,12 +493,12 @@ void extract_file_and_line(const char* symbols, char* cmd, size_t size)
 static void
 sigfatal_handler(int i)
 {
-    if (fatal_handling)
-    {
-        fprintf(stderr, "Fatal signal %d while backtracing\n", i);
-        _exit(1);
-    }
-    fatal_handling = 1;
+    // The same signal being handled *now* can occur in another thread (and is often likely).
+    // By setting the default handler here we will always get a core, but not necessarily
+    // the backtrace into the log file. This should be overhauled to proper signal handling
+    // (MXS-599).
+    signal_set(i, SIG_DFL);
+
     MXS_CONFIG* cnf = config_get_global_options();
     fprintf(stderr, "Fatal: MaxScale " MAXSCALE_VERSION " received fatal signal %d. "
             "Attempting backtrace.\n", i);
@@ -539,7 +539,6 @@ sigfatal_handler(int i)
 
     /* re-raise signal to enforce core dump */
     fprintf(stderr, "\n\nWriting core dump\n");
-    signal_set(i, SIG_DFL);
     raise(i);
 }