A widespread Microsoft outage linked to cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world on Friday and highlighted dependence on software from a handful of providers.
The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and major U.S. carriers including Delta and United.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz posted on social media platform X that the company “is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”
He said: “This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing it.
Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
In a statement to NBC News, a Microsoft spokesperson said, “We are aware of the issue affecting a subset of customers. We acknowledge how impactful this is to our customers, and we are working to restore services for those still experiencing disruptions as quickly as possible.”
Which airlines are impacted by the IT outage?
Meanwhile, major disruptions reported by airlines and airports grew. Flight tracking website Flightaware reports more nearly 1,000 flights canceled and over 12,000 more are delayed. Chicago O’Hare, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Newark , La Guardia and Boston Logan International Airport lead Flightaware’s “misery map” with the most delays and cancellations.
In the U.S., the FAA said the airlines United, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded. American Airlines lifted its ground stop just after 5 a.m ET, saying they were able to “safely re-establish operations.”
An earlier ground stop for Frontier Airlines was lifted just after midnight, and the carrier said they had resumed normal operations, for now.
In Chicago, travelers arriving at Midway Airport for Delta flights Friday morning were just learning of the outage because the airline’s communication systems are down. Delta told NBC Chicago that they have no way of rerouting passengers to their destinations, leaving customers to either return home or find flights on other carriers. Currently, Southwest Airlines and Frontier appeared to be operating normally.
Hoards of travelers crowded Philadelphia International Airport, where NBC Philadelphia reports “no flights are coming in or out of Philly.”
Travelers at Los Angeles International Airport slept on a jetway floor, using backpacks and other luggage for pillows, due to a delayed United flight to Dulles International Airport early on Friday.
Across the pond, Edinburgh Airport said the system outage meant waiting times were longer than usual. London’s Stansted Airport said some airline check-in services were being completed manually, but flights were still operating.
The budget airline Ryanair said they are “experiencing disruption across the network due to a global third party IT outage which is out of our control. We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their scheduled departure time.”
Widespread problems were reported at Australian airports, where lines grew and some passengers were stranded as online check-in services and self-service booths were disabled. Passengers in Melbourne queued for more than an hour to check in, although flights were still operating. Airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas were severely affected by the outage.
Airline operations in India were disrupted, affecting thousands. The privately-owned IndiGo airlines told the passengers on X that the Microsoft outage on Friday impacted airline operations in India, inconveniencing thousands of passengers.
Several airlines made statements on X saying that they were following manual check-in and boarding processes and warned of delays due to technical problems.
Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said in a statement that the outage was affecting some airlines at the city’s airport and they had switched to manual check-in.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol…
Read More: Microsoft outage linked to Crowdstrike leads to global computer outage – NBC4