LONDON – Major airlines, media companies, banks and telecommunications companies around the world reported systems outages on Friday that disrupted their operations.
Hundreds of flights were canceled in the United States on Friday morning, including by some airlines less than an hour after Microsoft said it had resolved a cloud-related outage that affected several low-cost carriers, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.
Public transport agencies across the US also reported impacts. Washington DC's Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said its “website and some internal systems are currently down” but trains and buses were running as scheduled. New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority also said its buses and trains were not affected, but “portions of MTA's customer information systems are temporarily offline due to a global technology outage.”
Travel disruptions:Global IT outage causes grounding, cancels over 500 US flights
CrowdStrike said in a promotional video earlier this year that the outage appeared to be related to an update for CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company used by more than half of the Fortune 500 companies.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on X that the outage was not a “security incident or cyber attack.”
He said this was related to “a flaw found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” He said the issue was “identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.”
In a statement about X, Microsoft said that “the underlying cause has been fixed” but that “some Microsoft 365 apps and services remain affected and we are implementing additional mitigation steps to provide relief.”
Developmental status:
In a statement about X, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was “closely monitoring the technical issues affecting U.S. airline IT systems” and that several airlines had “requested the FAA's assistance with grounding until the issues are resolved.”
▪ Dubai International Airport said on Tuesday it was operating normally after a “global system outage which affected the check-in process for some airlines.” It added that affected airlines “quickly switched to alternative systems and were able to quickly resume normal check-in operations.”
The University Medical Center of Schleswig-Holstein, one of Europe's largest medical facilities, said in a statement on its website that it would halt all elective procedures and close its outpatient clinics on Friday. Urgent care remained guaranteed, the statement said, citing Crowdstrike-related outages.
More than 500 US flights canceled
Air travelers around the world faced delays, cancellations and check-in problems as airports and airlines were hit by a major IT outage that affected a range of industries from banking to media companies.
Several U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, grounded all flights early Friday due to communications issues, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
As of 6 a.m. ET, more than 500 flights had been canceled and over 1,100 were delayed, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
Find out more about how the power outage will affect travel here
Power outages spread widely
The technology outage had widespread effects on Friday, from Britain to Singapore.
British broadcaster Sky News went offline, British rail companies reported lengthy delays, and departure boards at several British airports appeared to freeze, according to passengers who took to social media.
The London Stock Exchange reported confusion. Some hospitals also reported difficulties processing bookings, and several retail chains said they were unable to accept payments. Football club Manchester United said it had been forced to postpone a planned ticket sale at X.
In Australia, media, banking and telecommunications companies were hit by outages.
The office of Australia's national cyber security coordinator, Michelle McGuinness, said in a post on X that there was no information to indicate the outage was the result of a cybersecurity incident.
The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority said a global technical outage had taken some of its systems offline, but MTA train and bus service was not affected.
Spanish authorities reported a “computer incident” at all of the country's airports.
Berlin's main airport said check-in had been delayed due to “technical issues”.
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, warned passengers that all airlines operating across its network could be affected. The company did not disclose the nature of the disruptions.
There have been reports that a cargo terminal in Gdansk on Poland's Baltic coast is not operating properly.
Digital connectivity watchdog NetBlocks said the outages, reported by airlines, businesses and infrastructure services around the world, had a “minimal” impact on global internet connections.
Article contributed by Reuters