A massive global technology outage has interrupted air travel at Los Angeles International Airport and other California airports, one of many impacts of the widespread disruption Friday.
“We urge passengers to please check your flight status with your airline prior to heading to the airport,” the LAX Airport account on the social media platform X posted Friday morning.
San Francisco International Airport also reported numerous delayed flights.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or a cyberattack. The company said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.
The company’s president and chief executive, George Kurtz, posted a message on X Friday morning saying a fix had been made.
But in the meanwhile, the defect rippled across technology worldwide.
There were reports that some airports were beginning to restart service, but it unclear when things would return to normal.
LAX started to see impacts late Thursday. The outages were initially limited to Frontier Airlines and a few others and were caused partially by a software issue with Navitaire, a boarding pass printing system. The issue grew as more and more airlines began to face the same problems. Delta, American and United airlines were also affected.
A representative with LAX stressed that the issues facing the airport had nothing to do with flight safety. When a patch of code that caused the problem was fixed in CrowdStrike, the airport started to see airlines come back online, but it is still facing many more delays and cancellations than usual.
On Wednesday, there were 14 cancellations out of LAX. But on Friday, the airport already had more than 70 cancellations before 7 a.m.. At San Francisco International Airport, the numbers were similar. There were 16 cancellations on Wednesday compared with 76 so far Friday morning.
Back at LAX, shortly before 6 a.m., a Delta representative took to the intercom to tell passengers that the airport was still allowing planes to land, but that for the time being, all flights were grounded. He advised those travelers who are from L.A. to “go home” and check for updates on the company’s app or website.
He added that the company’s system was completely shut down, saying the resulting crippling of flight operations was “worse than 9/11.”
About half an hour later, another representative at the same gate — a flight headed to Minneapolis — announced that they were starting the preboarding process. Applause erupted.
Passengers reported waits of up to two hours to get through security into Terminal 2, as many people whose flights were canceled were instructed to retrieve their baggage before trying to rebook their flight.
Passengers whose flights had been canceled stood sullenly in line to rebook flights, but could not do that either because of the outages. One video out of LAX showed a woman hugging a Delta employee as she cried.
Outside were dozens of planes on the tarmac with nowhere to go.
Dozens of Delta flights were canceled the night before, with each announcement eliciting a collective groan from the crowd. Some passengers had waited through several hourlong delays.
By 6 a.m. Friday, Delta, American and United airlines posted messages to X saying some flights were delayed and travel waivers were being issued so customers could change flights. Each airline Friday morning said their services had been restored and data on the flight tracking website FlightAware reported 41 cancellations out of the airport in the last 24 hours.
The impact went beyond aviation.
KGO-TV, the ABC station in San Francisco, said “due to software issues that’s affecting ABC stations and other companies worldwide, we couldn’t go on air as scheduled for our 11 p.m. newscast.
Britain’s National Health Service said the outage caused problems at most doctors’ offices across England. Some hospitals in northern Germany canceled all elective surgery scheduled for Friday, but emergency care was unaffected.
In South Africa, at least one major bank said it was experiencing nationwide service disruptions as customers reported they were unable to make payments using their bank cards in stores. The New Zealand banks ASB and Kiwibank said their services were down as well.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.