A massive travel alert is unfolding right now at airports in California and around the globe. The FAA grounded flights this morning from Delta, United and American Airlines because of communication issues. This comes after a Microsoft outage forced Frontier Airlines to halt flights last night, leaving passengers stranded. That ground stop has since been lifted. The latest update online shows Los Angeles and San Francisco airports most affected.
Anyone flying out of the Bay Area and LAX today is urged to call ahead. Local airports are part of a worldwide travel alert. The FAA grounded flights this morning from Delta, United and American Airlines due to communication issues. The tech giant has since said its cloud services have been restored but users may still experience problems.
The worldwide tech outage is causing even more chaos across California. Microsoft computers are crashing, leaving users unable to log into Windows or use certain apps. Banks and other businesses that rely on Microsoft’s 365 apps are also affected and some may be closed today. On top of that, 911 call centers are at risk. Other states reported problems but it’s too early to know the extent here.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the outage that is affecting airlines, banks, and other systems worldwide.
The issue was apparently triggered by a software update from the CrowdStrike cybersecurity firm. The CEO of CrowdStrike said this morning that they were “actively working with customers” globally and that a fix was being deployed. Kurtz added that “this is not a security incident or a cyberattack.” The CrowdStrike software update was apparently causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display what is known as the “Blue Screen of Death.”