Global Tech Outage Causes Major Disruptions Across Industries

A significant technical issue caused widespread chaos on Friday, grounding flights from major U.S. airlines like Delta, United, and American Airlines. The FAA reported that over 600 flights were canceled by mid-morning due to a communication glitch. Millions of travelers are stranded around the world.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike confirmed the IT problem had been identified and a fix was underway. The outage impacted international airlines, New York and Washington, DC’s mass transit, and banking services in countries like Australia, South Africa, and the UK, as well as Hong Kong Disneyland and the Israeli health service. Additionally, London's Stock Exchange, and U.K broadcaster Sky News were disrupted. 

American Airlines resolved the issue by 5 a.m. ET but other airlines' ground stops remain uncertain. Microsoft's Azure cloud software experienced outages affecting service management and connectivity since 6 p.m. ET Thursday. The company is working on a fix but did not comment further.

Earlier, a Microsoft outage immobilized Frontier Airlines and other carriers for hours. Despite lifting the ground stop, carriers like Allegiant and SunCountry still faced challenges with online services.

The FAA noted on social media that several airlines sought assistance to halt operations until the problem was resolved, stating, "We are closely monitoring a technical issue affecting IT systems at U.S. airlines."

Additionally, international carriers such as Virgin Australia and Qantas, along with airports across Europe and Asia-Pacific, reported disruptions, further compounding the global impact of this outage.