CNN
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Further flight cancellations are expected over the weekend as airlines gradually recover from a global technical outage that left thousands of passengers stranded in airports.
More than 5,400 flights were canceled and more than 21,300 were delayed on Friday and Saturday, according to FlightAware.com. More than 600 flights had already been canceled by Sunday morning, and disruptions at airports could be entering a third day.
The problem extends beyond airports, with flawed software updates for the Microsoft Windows operating system issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike causing outages or disruptions to businesses, government agencies, health and emergency services, banks, schools and universities around the world, experts told CNN.
Glenn Gerstell, a former general counsel at the National Security Agency, told CNN on Saturday that the outage “essentially turned computers around the world into bricks.”
“In terms of overall impact, this is probably going to be the largest single computer incident,” Gerstell said. “It may not be about the number of computers, but the impact on people’s lives.”
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized to customers and said a fix had been distributed, but experts said it would be a lengthy process to get systems back to normal.
The outage affected an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices, less than 1% of all Windows machines, according to a Microsoft blog post on Saturday. “While a small percentage, the widespread economic and societal impact reflects the use of CrowdStrike by companies that run many critical services,” Microsoft said.
Major airlines say services are being restored but that further delays and disruptions are possible.
United Airlines said in a statement that most of its systems had been restored from Friday’s outage. More than 400 United flights were canceled on Saturday and another 200 on Sunday, according to FlightAware.com.
United Airlines said in a statement that “most of our systems have recovered from the global third-party software issue, but we may continue to experience operational disruptions, including flight delays or cancellations.”
Delta Air Lines said in an update Saturday morning that it was “continuing to restore operations” after an outage caused it to suspend operations on Friday, but more than 1,000 flights were canceled Saturday and more than 200 on Sunday.
“Additional cancellations are expected as some of Delta’s technology continues to recover from a vendor-issued issue Friday morning,” the update said.
Delta Air Lines announced over the weekend that it was suspending travel for unaccompanied minors until Monday because of the outage. Unaccompanied children already booked on Delta flights will not be able to travel, and the airline is asking people not to book new flights for them.
American Airlines was also affected, and the airline said in a statement on Friday that it was “able to safely resume operations” and had “issued travel waivers for customers impacted by the vendor’s technology issue early this morning.” Allegiant Airlines Saturday’s statement The company said it had “resume[ed]normal operations” after the outage but was working through a backlog of messages from customers and troubleshooting its programs and platform.
David Kennedy, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Binary Defense, told CNN on Saturday that even if the flawed computer update is rolled back, it wouldn’t be a quick fix for airlines, which have computers at thousands of gates that must be rebooted individually and manually.
“It’s not as simple as just restarting it. There are a lot of steps and complexities involved,” Kennedy said. “Airports and hubs just don’t have the manpower to do it.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Friday that it has determined that flight delays and cancellations caused by system failures are “controllable” and “the responsibility of the airlines.” In such cases, airlines “must uphold their customer service commitments.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a social media post on Saturday that he had received reports that some airlines were only offering flight credits to passengers on canceled flights.
“Let me be clear: if your flight is canceled and you don’t rebook, you are entitled to an immediate refund,” Buttigieg said.
Passengers queueing at airports due to cancelled or delayed flights are frustrated, as some miss out on important life events like weddings, funerals and birthdays.
Many flights were still canceled or delayed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Saturday, and long lines of passengers waited for assistance.
Delta Airlines passenger Catalina Villarreal described the scenes as “panic. Chaos. Frustration. Hunger.”
Villarreal expressed frustration over what he said was a lack of information from airlines.
“We’ve had three cancellations. We’ve checked in for every flight three times. And now I have two bags somewhere at the airport and who knows how long it’s going to take,” Villarreal said. “So they told me to come tomorrow or Monday.”
Thousands of people packed into airports across the country are facing the same anxiety as they wait for answers.
“We were supposed to be going to California for my mother’s wedding,” Richard Whitfield, of Pasco County, Florida, told CNN on Saturday. Whitfield and his partner, Jonathan Shade, left Tampa on Thursday but missed their connecting flight in Atlanta due to bad weather, which delayed the landing and forced them to refuel in Tallahassee.
After multiple delays to their rescheduled flight on Friday, the couple decided to cancel their trip and fly home, but a flight back to Tampa wasn’t available Friday night, so they spent a second night in an airport hotel. They weren’t able to get vouchers from Delta for either stay.
“[Richard]was on hold for 24 hours,” Shade told CNN. “When he finally got his number it was 2,001.”
Two hours later, Richards was 2,300th in Delta’s virtual customer service queue, Shade said.
Whitfield told CNN that the whole incident had an impact on him.
“To me, it’s the domino effect it has on humanity and everything we need to survive: food, sleep, water, shelter,” he said.
After 48 hours in Atlanta, they found a flight back to Tampa for Saturday evening, but they’re hoping the flight isn’t delayed or canceled. For now, Shade and Whitfield say all the couple can do is wait and “have a good drink.”
Another traveler at Boston Logan International Airport was traveling to Fort Lauderdale to celebrate his father’s 96th birthday.
“My flight this morning was canceled. I was supposed to be flying to Fort Lauderdale, they diverted me to West Palm Beach, then I got to the airport and it was canceled. No notice, no notification, nothing,” Charlotte Yeh told CNN affiliate WFXT on Saturday.
Some passengers at Boston’s airport were angry that their summer travel plans had been ruined.
“We booked our trip to Las Vegas quite some time in advance,” Mark Forbes told WFXT. “Since our flight the next day was at 6pm on Monday and we were only planning on staying in Las Vegas for four nights, we had to rebook our trip.”
Carol Edwards said both her Friday and Saturday flights were canceled and her next flight wasn’t available until Monday.
“There’s nothing we can do because we have so many plans to visit family, go out to eat, see friends, party,” she told WFXT.
