Multiple US airlines announced they were resuming operations on Friday following a huge global computer system outage that grounded or delayed thousands of flights throughout the country.
The IT issue has caused global pandemonium at airports, grounding aircraft in Europe and the United States, as well as disrupting television broadcasts in the United Kingdom and telecommunications in Australia.
Evyn Garson told reporters at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington that she and her family had been attempting to travel to Florida for a wedding but now “feel kind of stuck.”
“We definitely considered driving down there, but with bag checks now in place, we might stay.”
American Airlines announced on X that it had “safely re-established our operation” as of 5:00 am EST (0900 GMT) following a “technical issue with a vendor.”
United Airlines also posted on X that “some flights are resuming” as efforts continued to restore full operations.
Frontier Airlines reported that it was “gradually normalizing” and “in the process of resuming flight operations,” with the ground stop now lifted.
The disruption was apparently caused by an update to an antivirus program. Microsoft explained in a technical post on its website that the problems affected users of its Azure cloud platform running CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which had earlier announced the grounding of US carriers due to communication issues, stated it was “closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines.”
The FAA added that several US airlines had requested its “assistance with ground stops for their fleets until the issue is resolved.”
As of Friday morning, over 1,040 US flights were cancelled, and approximately 1,700 were delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware.