Widespread technology outage disrupts flights and banking around the world

A global computer glitch apparently triggered by software distributed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused widespread global outages late Thursday and into Friday morning.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed Friday morning that his company was working to resolve the problem,” Kurtz said on the social media platform X. “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

The problem affected airline communications, causing the Federal Aviation Administration to ground major carriers in the U.S., including American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines.

Microsoft, which hosts cloud services with businesses and governments, said it was grappling with service outages.

Microsoft issued a statement saying the problem was being investigated while cautioning that users “may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”

Britty Daniels found herself stuck in an airport in Burlington, Vermont, on Friday morning and said she’d received little information about the outage.

“Just that there’s a nationwide outage of Microsoft and it has something to do with their security system,” she said, noting that there was no word on when the problem might be resolved.

“We’re just here waiting in the airport with three small kids hoping to get home,” Daniels told NPR.

Passengers wait in front of check-in counters at the capital’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport, in Schönefeld, Germany, on Friday after a widespread technology outage disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world.

Christoph Soeder/AP/DPA

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Christoph Soeder/AP/DPA

While the exact series of events remains unclear, the issue reverberated widely.

Airports in Japan and Australia, 911 phone lines in Alaska, and the London Stock Exchange and hospitals in England were all dealing with major disruptions.

Entire companies are reporting being offline, and merchants can’t process payments in some cities.

News agencies, like Sky News in Australia, also reported being completely knocked offline.

This is a developing story and will be updated.