For the third consecutive day, over 1,000 flights in the US have been canceled as airlines continue to recover from a widespread technology outage, leaving thousands of travelers stranded at airports.
By 11 a.m. Sunday, FlightAware.com reported that over 1,500 flights into, within, or out of the US had already been canceled. Delta Air Lines alone accounted for nearly half of Sunday’s cancellations, impacting at least 500 flights.
“Additional cancellations are expected as some of Delta’s technology continues to recover from Friday morning’s vendor-caused issue,” the airline said in a statement Saturday morning. According to FlightAware, on Saturday, 2,136 flights within the US were canceled, while over 21,300 flights experienced delays.
Widespread Impact Beyond Airports
The disruption, attributed to a software update sent by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to Microsoft computers of its corporate clients, including numerous airlines, caused an overnight outage. This issue went beyond airports, affecting various sectors such as businesses, government agencies, health services, emergency services, banks, schools, and universities worldwide. Experts informed CNN that the flawed update for Microsoft Windows operating systems had caused widespread halts and service disruptions.
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The outage “has basically turned computers into bricks around the world,” Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel of the US National Security Agency, told CNN on Saturday.
“This is probably going to be the biggest single computer incident in terms of overall effect,” Gerstell said. “Maybe not the number of computers, but the impact on people’s lives.”
CrowdStrike CEO Issues an Apology
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued an apology to customers and assured that a solution has been implemented, though experts warn that restoring systems will be a prolonged endeavor.
The outage impacted approximately 8.5 million Windows devices, which Microsoft noted is less than 1% of all Windows machines, in a blog post on Saturday. “While the percentage was small, the widespread economic and societal ramifications underscore the critical reliance of enterprises on CrowdStrike,” Microsoft stated.
Major airlines have reported progress in restoring services, yet caution that further delays and disruptions are possible. United Airlines stated that a majority of its systems have recovered since Friday’s outage, disclosing that over 400 flights were canceled on Saturday and more than 200 on Sunday, according to FlightAware.com.
“While most of our systems have recovered from the worldwide third-party software outage, we may continue to experience some disruption to our operation, including flight delays and cancellations,” United said.
Response and Recovery Efforts
Delta announced over the weekend that it has suspended unaccompanied minor travel until Monday due to the ongoing outage. Children traveling as unaccompanied minors who are currently booked on Delta flights will be unable to travel, and the airline has requested that no new bookings be made for them at this time.
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