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Friday 19 July 2024

News & Info

Worldwide tech outage causes major travel disruptions across the world

A tech global outage has caused massive disruptions in flights and travel across the world, today on 19 July 2024.

Representative image of Airplane in airport
Representative image. Photo by Anna Gru on Unsplash

Today on 19th July 2024, as per the reports, a major outage in computer systems on Microsoft Windows caused by a cybersecurity update is affecting the airlines and causing major disruptions in air travel and other services across the world.

Several airlines and airports across the world are issuing travel advisories on this subject. As per the reports, Microsoft’s Azure platform faced a global outage after a new update from CrowdStrike. this wasn't a security issue or a cyber attack, but was due to a content update for Windows hosts. Below are a few posts by some of them, on X.

IndiGo airlines posted on X (formerly Twitter), "Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. The option to rebook/claim a refund is temporarily unavailable...", and told passengers to visit their link to check cancelled flights (see below tweet).


They also tweeted that "As our systems are impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, we are experiencing high volumes at contact centre. Please contact us only if your travel is within 24 hrs."


Delhi Airport posted on X (formerly Twitter), "Due to the global IT issue, some of the services at the Delhi Airport were temporarily impacted. We are closely working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our flyers."


Air India posted on X, "Customer Advisory. Airport travel systems across the world have been impacted due to a tech outage and this may affect your travel plan. If you are flying with us today, we request you to check the status of your flight before heading to the airport."


SpiceJet airlines posted on X (formerly Twitter), "We are currently experiencing technical challenges with our service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in, and manage booking functionalities. As a result, we have activated manual check-in and boarding processes across airports. We kindly request passengers with upcoming travel plans to arrive at the airport earlier than usual to complete check-in at our counters. We sincerely regret for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you that our teams are diligently working with our service provider to resolve these issues promptly. Thank you for your patience and co-operation during this time."


Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issued an advisory on X, stating that "It has been reported that Windows hosts related to Crowd strike agent Falcon Sensor, are facing outages and getting crashed due to recent update received in the product. The concerned Windows hosts are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), related to Falcon Sensor. The issues occurred in the latest update of CrowdStrike and the changes have been reverted by the CrowdStrike Team..."


In a statement on X, CrowdStrike's CEO stated, "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."


So, it is evident that this wasn't a security issue or a cyber attack, but was due to a content update for Windows hosts. This outage has affected travel systems wordwide and even airlines in other countries are notifying about it.


Even international airlines have been hit by this outage. For example, United Airlines posted on X, "A third-party outage is impacting computer systems, including at United and many other organizations worldwide.

As we work to fully restore these systems, some flights are resuming. Many customers traveling today may experience delays.We have issued a waiver to make it easier to change your travel plans at ..."


Airlines are even issuing handwritten boarding passes to keep things going! IndiGo airlines posts on X, sharing a picture of a handwritten boarding pass by a passenger.


In Bengaluru airport alone, 53 domestic flights were cancelled and over 55 flights were delayed due to this Microsoft outage.

For more information if you're scheduled for travelling, get in touch with your airlines or their help desks. And these massive disruptions due to this issue has not only hit the airports, but has also affected banks, media, and other services across the world.

We just noticed that SpiceJet tweeted a few minutes ago that the technical issue has been successfully fixed and that their operations have been restored to normal.


So, it looks like the issue may be soon be resolved across other services too, which were also affected by this tech outage.

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