The massive cyber outage, triggered by a software upgrade, halted operations at businesses, hospitals, broadcasters and banks overnight and grounded thousands of planes, causing chaos for air travelers stranded in airports around the world.
As of 8:30 a.m. Friday, more than 100 flights in and out of the Twin Cities had been canceled at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, with the number expected to rise, airport spokesman Jeff Lee said.
“Just like with winter storms, if flights are cancelled in other parts of the country, they won’t get here. It could have a domino effect,” he said.
Queues had already stretched into the hundreds at check-in counters and security checkpoints at Terminal 1. Lee advised travellers to contact airlines directly about flight status as the information displayed on airport flight monitors “cannot be trusted”.
Savage resident Raj Dutt was waiting in line with his wife and daughter to check in for a flight to Cancun when the family arrived at the airport at 6 a.m., but two hours later, the baggage check was still unavailable.
“I was told I had to rebook my flight as I was not able to check in an hour before due to cyber security issues. [with an agent.] We’re taking off at 9 o’clock. The situation is not good.”
Dutt said most people understand the situation. “I haven’t seen anybody get angry or anything.”
Local airline Sun Country canceled all flights scheduled to depart before 7 a.m. A short time later, the airline announced it would resume some flights, but “expect further cancellations today. Due to a system outage, ticket counter agents and customer service representatives are currently unable to rebook travel.” The airline urged travelers to check their email for updates.
Delta Air Lines, the main carrier at MSP, announced it had resumed some departures around 7 a.m. after suspending all flights early Friday. Delta canceled 449 flights nationwide, including 67 at MSP, as of 8:45 a.m. due to the outage. Delta issued a travel waiver, allowing customers for Friday’s flights to change and rebook their itineraries without the fare difference, provided they travel by July 24.
Many travelers still didn’t know if their flights would be on time, canceled or delayed. Raina Johnson of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, was traveling with her family to the Farewell Music Festival in Oregon and was halfway through security for a flight departing in 30 minutes. Johnson said the app wasn’t working, leaving her with no information on what to do next if she missed her flight.
Finesse Bartlett of West Palm Beach, Florida, was returning home with her husband, two children and dog after a week relaxing on the lake in his hometown of Fergus Falls. She said the app showed the flight was on time but she had not received any information about how to rebook.
“Actually, we’ve had a long week so we’re taking it easy. We’ve also set up a hotspot for the kids,” she said, pointing to her children who were quietly playing games on their phones.
Airport officials said lines were moving slowly because only three of the 26 kiosks at the baggage screening area were operational.
About 2,400 flights were canceled at airports across the country by 9 a.m., according to flight-tracking site flightaware.com. More than 3,600 flights were canceled and more than 24,800 were delayed worldwide, according to the site.
“Multiple airlines are reporting system outages affecting flights at MSP and across the country. Please check with your airline for the latest flight status before departing to the airport,” MSP said in a statement.
United Airlines and American Airlines also said they were affected by the outage but were gradually resuming operations. Lee said some flights were operating normally at MSP, but the situation varies by airline. Frontier Airlines said check-in, boarding passes and access to some flights may be affected.
“We are working to fully restore these systems and some flights have resumed. Many customers traveling today may experience delays,” United said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was “closely monitoring” the cyber outage.
“The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue affecting U.S. airline IT systems. Several airlines have requested the FAA’s assistance with grounding until the issue is resolved,” the FAA said in a social media post.
The U.S. Department of Transportation reminded passengers to use flightrights.gov to “find out what responsibilities airlines have to meet the needs of their passengers.”
Metro Transit spokesman Drew Carr said the outage was not affecting service and that buses and light rail trains were running as scheduled.
The outage affected other industries as well, with WCCO announcing early Friday that its broadcasts were delayed due to technical issues.
“WCCO This Morning is delayed due to a Microsoft outage. We are working to resolve the issue and get back on air as soon as possible,” the network said in a statement shortly after 5 a.m.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said its IT staff was working to “minimize” the impact to service, but that 911 calls were being disrupted.
The major outage affecting Microsoft systems appears to be linked to a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which had deployed a buggy software update that “had a negative impact” on the company, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on NBC’s “Today” show.
“It was not a cyber attack, it was related to a content update,” he told the news program. “We identified it quickly and fixed it. We are working with each of our customers to get them back online. We deeply apologize for the impact this has had on our customers, our travelers and everyone affected by this incident.”
Kurtz said the company needs to figure out what happened.
