Flights at San Francisco International Airport and around the globe were canceled or delayed on Friday due to a major technology outage affecting Microsoft systems.
The big picture: There were reports of massive online outages disrupting travel, banking and news outlets on Friday, as CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that services multiple industries, went down worldwide.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it is “closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines” and that several airlines had requested “assistance with ground stops for their fleets.”
George Kurtz, president and CEO of CrowdStrike, said in a post to X the company was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”
Driving the news: American, Delta, United and Allegiant Airlines grounded flights early Friday morning due to communications issues, per an FAA alert.
Zoom in: The outage hit United Airlines hard at SFO, where no United flights left the airport for several hours Friday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
As of 9:17am, 122 flights going to or from SFO had been delayed and 81 had been canceled, according to FlightAware.
At 7am, SFO said on X its systems were functioning and that airline systems were coming back online. It said to check with airlines for flight status updates.
Zoom out: San Francisco’s 911 dispatch system was unaffected, but fire officials believe the bug “most likely” caused about 20 false fire alarms to set off around 2:30am throughout the city, the San Francisco Standard reports.