Last Friday, CBS News says, flights were either delayed or canceled after a worldwide Microsoft outage, caused by a CrowdStrike update, occurred.
Thankfully, 911, hospitals, and mass transit were not impacted, as Tri-State Area officials stressed that the outage was not a cyberattack.
Multiple airlines were impacted though. Delta, United, and American, to name a few, continued to experience delays and cancellations throughout Saturday.
For Frontier Airlines, the outage started late Thursday night. According to CBS News, the Federal Aviation Administration requested ground stops for major airlines at 2:30 a.m. While American and United were able to resume takeoffs at 5 a.m., Delta was grounded for another three hours.
Other airlines didn’t have it any better.
At 10:45 p.m. John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty International Airports reported hundreds of delays and cancellations: 444 and 229, 445 and 231, and 580 and 225, respectively.
At LaGuardia, CBS says “digital boards…blank and travelers…grounded. There was barely room to squeeze into the Spirit departure terminal, but the baggage carousels sat still with few arriving flights”.
Meanwhile, JFK passengers told CBS that “on international flights, anyone without a U.S. passport had to remain on board the plan after landing due to the outage”.
According to travelers in Newark, attempts to check in virtually at 2 a.m. were unsuccessful and the line to get to the ticket counter was extremely long, with a wait time of three hours.
Meanwhile, an increased demand for rental cars left many companies with low stock and high demand.
Many of the airlines are offering travel waivers, allowing passengers to rebook their flights for a later time. Apologies were also given across social media.
Ticket agents were also affected, having to handwrite boarding passes rather than print them out.
The rights of flyers were emphasized by Kris Van Cleave, who said in a statement “If you’re stranded overnight, that should result in a voucher for a hotel. And if your flight doesn’t go, you should be able to get a cash refund”.
Those affected felt like they went back in time, with one Dallas resident stating “It’s like going back to the ‘70s, going to the system where you get a boarding pass handwritten and your luggage is handwritten”.
Thankfully, the outage is now over and things can return to normal.
