Transport agencies, businesses and governments were rushing Saturday to get all systems back online after hours of disruption. Widespread technology failures.
The biggest ongoing impact will be on air travel: Airlines canceled thousands of flights on Friday, and many planes and crew are now in the wrong locations, while airports continue to face check-in and security issues. As of about 9 a.m. EDT on Saturday, flight tracking service FlightAware listed about 20,000 flight delays on its website.
At the heart of this massive mess is CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that provides software to many companies around the world.The company said the issue arose when a flawed update was applied to computers running Microsoft Windows, and that the outage was not caused by a security incident or cyberattack.
A Microsoft outage caused by a CrowdStrike software update has once again revealed a familiar, and scary, screen to many Windows users. It is unofficially labeled ” “Blue Screen of Death” This indicates that your computer system is down.
The outage affected consumers and businesses around the world, including airlines, banks, healthcare providers, telecommunications companies, retail stores and even a billboard in New York City's Times Square.
Binh Guan/Reuters
The latest information is as follows:
Britain's transport system is still trying to get back on track
LONDON — Britain's travel and transport industry is struggling to get back on schedule after a global security disaster, with air passengers facing cancellations and delays just as many school students mark the first day of their summer holidays.
Gatwick Airport said the “vast majority” of scheduled flights were due to take off, while Manchester Airport said passengers were being checked in manually and flights could be cancelled at the last minute.
The Port of Dover said it was seeing an influx of evacuated air passengers, with people facing wait times of up to an hour just to enter the port to board a ferry to France.
Meanwhile, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre warned individuals and businesses to be vigilant as “malicious actors” may exploit the outage to launch phishing attacks.
Ciarán Martin, former director of the National Cyber Security Centre, said the worst of the crisis was over. “The nature of the crisis meant that things escalated quickly. It was quickly discovered and effectively stopped.”
He told Sky News that while some businesses would be able to return to normal quickly, other sectors such as aviation would take longer.
“When you're in aviation, you've got people, planes, staff all stranded in the wrong place. So it's going to take days. I'd be surprised if it takes weeks.”
German airlines expect most flights to operate normally
BERLIN — Lufthansa's budget airline Eurowings said it plans to resume operations “largely as scheduled” on Saturday.
A global IT outage forced airlines to cancel around 20% of flights, mostly domestic, on Friday, and passengers were urged to take trains instead.
“Online check-in, airport check-in, boarding procedures, booking and rebooking of flights are all now possible again,” the airline said in a statement on Saturday. “However, due to the widespread nature of the global IT disruptions, passengers may still experience sporadic disruptions,” it said.
Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates canceled hundreds of flights.
DALLAS — Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates had canceled more than a quarter of their East Coast schedules by mid-afternoon Friday, according to aviation data provider Sirium.
More than 1,100 flights on Delta Airlines and its affiliates were canceled.
United Airlines and United Express canceled more than 500 flights, or 12% of their total operations, while American Airlines' network canceled 450 flights, or 7.5% of its total operations.
Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, which do not use the Crowdstrike software that caused the global internet outage, have canceled fewer than six flights each.
Portland, Oregon mayor declares emergency over power outages
PORTLAND, Ore. — Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency Friday after a global internet outage affected more than half of the city's computer systems.
Wheeler said at a news conference that emergency calls were not interrupted, but that dispatchers had 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 crossings into the U.S. are delayed
SAN DIEGO — People trying to enter the United States from both the north and south found border crossings delayed by internet outages.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, traffic was backed up at the San Ysidro immigration checkpoint on Friday morning, with pedestrians waiting up to three hours to get through.
Even cars carrying passengers approved for U.S. Customer and Border Protection's “Trusted Traveler” program, intended for low-risk passengers, were forced to wait up to 90 minutes. The program, called SENTRI, allows passengers to move through customs and passport control more quickly if they schedule an interview upon arrival in the U.S. and pass a background check.
Meanwhile, at the US-Canada border, Windsor police reported lengthy delays at the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel checkpoints.
Carolyn Custer/AP
