Flights Resume After Global Technology Outage Disrupts Airports

News Desk

Paris: Flights started to gradually resume on Saturday following a major worldwide IT outage that severely disrupted media outlets, banks, and airlines. An antivirus software upgrade caused the disruption which resulted in the cancellation of many flights and an increase in the number of travellers at airports on Friday.

The disruption was caused by an update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon cybersecurity software which led to a system crash affecting Windows users worldwide. By Saturday, the situation had largely stabilised at airports in Germany and France, with preparations underway for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. Operations also resumed at major US airlines and airports across Asia, including Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Singapore.

CrowdStrike has apologised for the incident. Microsoft reported that 8.5 million Windows devices were impacted, though this represents less than one percent of all Windows machines.

The crash, which began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, led to the notorious “blue screen of death” error message. CrowdStrike released a fix for the issue, but the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) George Kurtz expressed his regret and acknowledged that a full recovery could take several days.

The National Health Service (NHS) in Britain was also severely affected, with doctors unable to access patient records or book appointments. While many systems are coming back online, NHS officials warned of continued disruptions into next week. Media companies such as Sky News and Australia’s ABC faced significant difficulties due to the outage.

Authorities in Australia, Britain, and Germany have warned of increased scams and phishing attempts following the disruption. Banks in Kenya and Ukraine experienced issues with their digital services, and some mobile phone carriers and customer service departments were also disrupted.

The IT crash led to thousands of flights were grounded in the US, but airlines are working to address the backlog. India’s largest airline, Indigo, reported that operations were resuming, though recovery would extend into the weekend. Low-cost carrier AirAsia is still working to restore its systems. Beijing’s airports, however, reported no impact from the outage.

Experts have noted that this incident underscores the risks of over-reliance on specific tech companies and the need for more resilient infrastructure to prevent widespread failures. CrowdStrike has stated that the issue was not related to a cyberattack, and efforts are now focused on assessing and mitigating the damage caused by this unprecedented outage. AFP/APP