Major US airlines have grounded flights nationwide due to communication issues.
The grounding is linked to a global IT outage affecting banks, emergency services, and airports worldwide.
American Airlines, the world’s largest by passenger numbers, informed the BBC that no flights were being allowed to take off. They are in contact with all flights currently in the air.
The issue is attributed to a “technical problem” with Crowdstrike, an antivirus software. Crowdstrike has not yet responded to the BBC’s request for comment.
Unconfirmed reports suggest a software update from Crowdstrike caused Windows devices to crash.
According to the AFP news agency, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) notified carriers that “all flights, regardless of destination,” were grounded.
Delta and United airlines, along with smaller carriers, have also been affected by the tech outage.
Late on Thursday, US airline Frontier mentioned a “major Microsoft technical outage” impacting its operations.
US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg stated that his department was “monitoring technical issues” at Frontier, which were causing cancellations and delays across their network.
The grounding has also affected flights in other countries. Japan’s Narita airport, located around 60km (37 miles) from Tokyo, reported issues with airlines JetStar, Jeju Air, Qantas, HK Express, and Spring Japan.
And in India, Delhi airport says some services have been temporarily impacted.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is one of the latest to report delays caused by the IT outage.
“The outage has an impact on flights flying from and to Schiphol,” a spokesperson said, adding it that it was not yet clear how many flights had been affected.