“We are stuck at this airport,” he posted in a video on X at 6 a.m., zooming in on blue airport screens showing system errors. “United, Delta, America, all this stuff is down. People are just sitting here. The apps still say our flight’s on time because they can’t update information in the apps.”
Air passengers around the world faced delays, cancellations and problems checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in a massive IT outage that also affected industries ranging from banks to media companies.
Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops for all their flights early on Friday due to communication problems, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
There were over 2,600 flights canceled and nearly 9,200 delays as of 5 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. Most airlines were able to resume operations as the morning progressed, but many said they expected disruptions to continue throughout the day.
Megan Brown said Washington Dulles Airport was surprisingly calm, even as the airline industry was in turmoil. She said the airport was less crowded than usual, making for a quicker-than-expected security screening, and passengers seemed understanding about the disruptions.
“We just took the gamble and came here, and hopefully we’ll leave today,” Brown told USA TODAY by phone from Dulles. “There’s nothing you can do.”
Her family’s 8:25 a.m. ET flight to San Francisco was delayed, but they were able to take off within a couple of hours. “A cheer just erupted as the gate agent said we are going to start boarding,” she said.
Around the world, airports and airlines advised customers to arrive earlier than normal for flights.
Around 9 a.m. Sikora posted another video showing fellow travelers sitting on the floor and standing in the middle of a crowded Philadelphia International Airport terminal.
“Everyone is in the same boat. Just wandering and sitting,” he told USA TODAY.
The cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike blamed the global tech outage on a defect in an update for Microsoft Windows hosts.
“Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected,” Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz posted on X. “We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on. As noted earlier, the issue has been identified and a fix has been deployed. There was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts.”
The aviation sector was hit particularly hard due to its sensitivity to timings. Airlines rely on a closely coordinated schedule often run by air traffic control. Just one delay of a few minutes can throw off a flight schedule for take-offs and landings for an airport and airline for the rest of the day.
“The issue affected many separate systems, such as those used for calculating aircraft weight, checking in customers, and phone systems in our call centers,” United Airlines said in a statement. “After pausing all departures overnight, flights resumed on Friday morning and we are working diligently to get our customers to their destinations.”
Are flights still grounded? How long will flight delays last?
“Ground stops and delays will be intermittent at various airports as the airlines work through residual technology issues,” the FAA said, adding that it’s working closely with airlines to resume normal operations.
Travelers are advised to contact their airlines and monitor the FAA’s website for the latest information.
How to find the reason for flight delay
Customers can ask airlines why their flight is canceled or delayed, but the Department of Transportation confirmed that it considers the delays and cancellations caused by Friday’s IT outage to be “controllable” by the airlines. While airlines may say they didn’t cause the computer error, it means that the DOT will hold them responsible for upholding the commitments they’ve made to customers when it comes to policies like rebooking or hotel and meal vouchers as the mess gets sorted out. Every airline’s policy is outlined on the DOT customer service dashboard.