On the morning of Friday, July 19, multiple major U.S. airlines, including American, Delta, and United, grounded their flights due to a global technical outage. This massive, worldwide IT disruption, affecting Microsoft Windows and all systems using it, left many facing the dreaded “blue screen of death,” as reported by outlets such as NBC News, CNN, and BBC News.
This issue is not believed to be the result of a cyberattack but rather a bug in an update from the American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest providers of such software globally. The outage has significantly impacted various industries beyond airlines, including banks, stock exchanges, police and fire stations, hospitals, news broadcasters, and other public transit systems like trains and buses. Additionally, many businesses, from Fortune 500 companies to local coffee shops using mobile ordering systems, have been affected.
Microsoft Windows customers using personal computers have also reported issues, as verified by. Microsoft acknowledged the significant impact on customers in a public statement released on Friday morning, saying, “We acknowledge how impactful this is for our customers, and we’re working to still receiving obstructions as soon as possible.” Despite not immediately responding to requests for comment, the company did not mince words.
CrowdStrike noted they had identified the issue and deployed a fix, gradually taking effect. George Kurtz, the founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, explained on the Today show, “The system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system. And we identified this very quickly and remediated the issue. As systems come back online and rebooted, they’re working.” Kurtz apologized for the disruption, stating, “We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, and anyone affected by this including our company. It is our mission to make sure that every customer is recovered. We’re not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were.”
CrowdStrike also clarified that Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted, advising customers to check their support portal for the latest updates and use official communication channels. “Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” they added.
Impact on Airlines and Public Transit Systems
By 8 a.m. EST on Friday, some flights in the United States began to take off again, but transportation delays were expected to continue throughout the day. American Airlines confirmed that “we have been able to safely re-establish our operation” but that planes would only depart after 5 a.m. EST. United Airlines warned travelers to “expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday,” while Delta urged impacted customers to use their official app for updates. All airlines apologized for the inconvenience, citing the technical issues affecting “multiple carriers.”
Other airlines affected include Frontier Airlines, which first reported the outage on Thursday, July 18, in a news release stating that a “major Microsoft technical outage” led to several flight cancellations and delays. By Friday morning, Frontier announced on Facebook that “the ground stop has been lifted, and our systems are gradually normalizing.” The FAA has been in contact with air traffic controllers, advising them to update airborne pilots on the ongoing communication issues. “The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines,” the organization told in a statement. “Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops for their fleets until the issue is resolved.”
The IT outage caused major backups at airports, leaving stranded travelers waiting for information. Airports worldwide, including those in Berlin and Amsterdam, reported similar delays and long check-in lines.
Broader Industry Effects and Ongoing Solutions
The outage’s effects extended beyond airlines to various other sectors. Newscasters for the Australian Broadcasting Company presented in front of blank screens, while Sky News in the U.K. was unable to go on air at one point, as reported by BBC News. Other Australian media organizations, including Channel 7, Channel 9, SBS, and News Corp, also experienced network issues. The organizing committee for the Paris Olympics reported that its IT operations were impacted, according to BBC News.
Irish low-cost airline Ryanair stated on X (formerly known as Twitter), “We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a Global 3rd party IT outage which is out of our control.” Melbourne Airport’s Facebook page indicated that Jetstar Airways experienced a “significant outage,” while Qantas and Virgin were “slowly processing passengers.”
A statement on the Azure cloud software status report site on the morning of July 19 read, “We’ve been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check (BSOD) and get stuck in a restarting state. We’re aware of this issue and are currently investigating potential options Azure customers can take for mitigation.”
This widespread technical disruption underscores the critical importance of robust cybersecurity measures and the potential ripple effects of software issues across global industries. The response from Microsoft and CrowdStrike highlights the urgency and complexity of addressing such widespread outages and the need for continuous improvement in IT system resilience.