A computer error forced the suspension of all flights by several American airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines, and the incident was confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which also reported that improvements were being made to the system in order to restore normality, but the situation has not yet affected Argentina.
The aforementioned companies suspended all their flights and The FAA cited communication problems, while not saying how long the planes would remain “on the ground”while Allegiant was reported to have said its website was unavailable due to a problem with Microsoft Azure, the tech giant’s cloud software.
Microsoft said Friday it was investigating an issue affecting users’ ability to access several Microsoft 365 apps and services. It said on its Azure status report site Thursday that the service was down for some customers in the United States, adding that it had determined the cause and is working to fix it.
United Airlines said in a statement on Friday that all of its planes were grounded as it worked to fix a “third-party software issue,” after the FAA announced the grounding of several major U.S. airlines. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Allegiant Airlines are also grounded, regardless of the flights’ destinations, the FAA said.
“A third-party software outage is affecting computer systems around the world, including United. While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights that have already taken off are continuing to their destinations,” the airline said.
Meanwhile, media outlets in various countries reported that other international airlines, such as Virgin Australia and Qantas, were affected by the computer outages and were still operating, but with delays, while airports in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney were experiencing similar disruptions, although flights were still arriving and departing.
Meanwhile, Australian banks and telecoms including ANZ, Westpac, Visa and Optus have also been affected, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks cyber outages, while Chinese Microsoft customers are seeing a “blue screen” with an error message, popularly known as BSOD (blue screen of death), Microsoft confirmed on Friday.
In addition, the London Stock Exchange said its news service is experiencing “a global third-party technical issue” that is preventing news from being published on its website, while the company’s other services, including the exchange itself, continue to operate normally, it added.
The situation in the world
Massive technology outages around the world have shut down computer systems, causing delays and disruptions at European airports and affecting other transport links, CNN reported.
London’s Gatwick Airport said it was “affected by Microsoft’s global issues” and that passengers may experience delays when checking in and going through security, while Berlin in Germany is experiencing delays at check-in due to a “technical glitch”.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport said the “global system failure” had affected “flights to and from Schiphol” and that the impact was “now being mapped”. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said the outages were “making the handling of flights impossible”, while at Edinburgh Airport computer disruptions meant “waiting times are longer than usual at the airport”.
Spain’s airport authority AENA, which oversees airports in Madrid, Barcelona and others across the country, said in a post on X that there had been a “computer system incident” that “could cause delays,” adding that it was working to resolve the problems.
Prague Airport, meanwhile, said in a post on X that the issues have affected its global check-in system, delaying flights, while Ryanair also confirmed an outage across the airline’s network, advising passengers to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled departure time.
Turkish Airlines, meanwhile, said it was experiencing problems with ticketing, check-in and booking. “Our teams are working diligently to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” the airline said in a statement, and Thameslink, one of Britain’s major railway lines, also reported problems: “Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the issue.”
Source: Ambito
