Washington DC: Air passengers around the United States faced significant delays and cancellations on Friday due to a global outage of Microsoft-based computer systems. The outage disrupted numerous industries, including airlines, resulting in the cancellation of over 1,100 flights and delays for more than 1,700 others.
Many US airports experienced unexpected disruptions early Friday morning, causing significant inconvenience for travelers. Passengers expressed their frustration over the delays and cancellations, with some left waiting for hours both at the gates and on the tarmac.
“No one here knows anything, the gate agents said we all know as much as they do,” a United Airlines passenger told ANI, describing the uncertainty and confusion caused by the outage.
Another passenger, Mack, commented on the lack of information: “I am on my way home… I did not know that the internet was out. It is a global outage.”
CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity firm, clarified that the outage was not a cyberattack but a software issue. The firm assured that a fix had been deployed to address the problem.
Several major US carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops for all their flights due to communication issues, as confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“A third-party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United,” United Airlines said in a statement. “While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations.”
American Airlines similarly reported: “We’re aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with CrowdStrike to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
Broader Impact on Industries
The outage extended beyond the aviation industry, affecting banks, media companies, food chains, brokerage houses, and railway networks. Many businesses reported IT outages, including the appearance of the notorious ‘Windows blue screen of death.’
Microsoft acknowledged the issue, stating, “We’re investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”
Technical Resolution
George Kurtz, President and CEO of CrowdStrike, assured that the issue had been isolated and a fix deployed, emphasizing that it was “not a security incident or cyberattack.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also addressed the situation, stating that Microsoft was working closely with CrowdStrike to provide technical guidance and support to affected customers. “Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online,” Nadella posted on X.
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