Transport providers, businesses and governments on Saturday rushed to bring all systems back online after a long outage that followed Widespread technology outages.
The biggest continuing effect is on air travel. Carriers canceled thousands of flights on Friday and now many planes and crews are in the wrong place, while airports continue to have problems with checks and security. As of Saturday around 9 a.m. EDT, flight tracking service FlightAware listed about 18,000 flight delays on its website.
At the heart of this massive disturbance CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that provides software to many companies around the world. The company said that the problem occurred when it sent the wrong update to a computer running Microsoft Windows, as the problem behind the outage was not a security incident or a cyber attack.
Microsoft’s cutbacks caused by CrowdStrike software updates have also led to the return of a familiar – and terrifying – screen for many Windows users: what has been informally known as “blue screen of death” indicating that his computer system is down.
The outage affected consumers and businesses around the world, including airlines, banks, healthcare providers, telecommunications, retailers and even billboards in New York City’s Times Square.
Bing Guan/REUTERS
Here’s the latest:
Britain’s transport system is still trying to get back on the road
LONDON – Britain’s travel and transport industry is struggling to get back on schedule after a global security disruption with airline passengers facing cancellations and delays on the first day of summer holidays for many schoolchildren.
Gatwick Airport said the “vast majority” of scheduled flights would take off. Manchester Airport said passengers were checked in manually and last-minute cancellations were possible.
The Port of Dover said many air passengers were stranded, with an hour-long wait to enter the port to catch a ferry to France.
Meanwhile, the UK’s National Cyber ​​Security Center is warning people and businesses to be wary of phishing attempts as “opportunistic malicious actors” try to take advantage of the outage.
The former head of the National Cyber ​​Security Centre, Ciaran Martin, said the worst of the crisis was over, “because the nature of the crisis was so wrong.
He told Sky News that some businesses could return to normal quickly, but for sectors such as aviation, it would take longer.
“When you’re in flight, you have people, planes and staff all stranded in the wrong place… So we’re looking at days. I’d be surprised if we’re looking at weeks.”
The German airline expects most of its flights to operate normally
BERLIN – Eurowings, Lufthansa’s budget subsidiary, said it will return to “scheduled” flight operations on Saturday.
On Friday, a global IT outage forced the airline to cancel about 20% of its flights, mostly on domestic routes. Passengers are asked to board the train.
“Online check-in, check-in at the airport, the boarding process, booking and rebooking flights are all possible again,” the airline said on X. “However, due to the large number of global IT disruptions there are still isolated disruptions” for passengers, he said.
Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates have canceled hundreds of flights
DALLAS – Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates canceled more than a quarter of their East Coast schedules by midnight Friday, flight data provider Cirium said.
More than 1,100 flights for Delta and its affiliates have been canceled.
United and United Express canceled more than 500 flights, or 12% of its schedule, and the American Airlines network canceled 450 flights, 7.5% of its schedule.
Southwest and Alaska did not use the CrowdStrike software that caused the global internet outage and canceled less than half a dozen flights each.
Portland, Oregon’s mayor declared an emergency due to the disturbance
PORTLAND, Ore. – Mayor Ted Wheeler declared an emergency Friday after more than half of the city’s computer systems were affected by a global internet outage.
Wheeler said during the press conference that if emergency service calls were not interrupted, operators would have to manually track 911 calls with pen and paper for several hours. He said 266 of the city’s 487 computer systems were affected.
Border crossing into the US is delayed
SAN DIEGO – People looking to enter the U.S. from the north and south are finding that border crossings are being delayed due to internet outages.
The San Ysidro Harbor Bridge was closed Friday morning with pedestrians waiting three hours to cross, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Even cars with people approved for the US Customer and Border Protection “Trusted Traveler” program for low-risk passengers wait up to 90 minutes. The program, known as SENTRI, moves passengers through customs and passport control faster if they make an appointment for an interview and submits to a background check to travel through customs and passport control faster when they arrive in the U.S.
Meanwhile, on the US-Canada border, Windsor Police reported long delays at crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
