Global technology outage disrupts flights in San Diego
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A massive technology outage Friday morning impacted several services and companies worldwide, including here in San Diego.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack, and was instead a problem that occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.
Specifically affected were several airlines and flights throughout the country as well as globally. Locally, some delays and cancelations have been reported at the San Diego International Airport (SAN).
American, Delta and United Airlines were among those who grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft announced this issue. The outage has reportedly since been fixed, however, there is a ripple effect following the disruption as computer systems get back to normal.
Delays and cancellations at airports across the country is the story Friday as nearly everyone FOX 5/KUSI spoke with at the San Diego Airport Friday were dealing with some kind of disruption.
People are now getting rebooked, some for Saturday, some for Sunday. People are even preparing to hunker down and spend the night at the airport while they wait.
Hundreds of travelers have been left scrambling, waiting in long rebooking lines, as thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed Friday.
Experts are reminding travelers this was not a cyberattack, but it could still take some time to resolve.
“Airports are being affected, jails are being affected, ports are being affected, banks are being affected. If you’re running CrowdStrike, which a lot of organizations are, especially in the fortune 500, they are going to be affected,” said Nikolas Behar, adjunct professor of cybersecurity, University of San Diego.
One local traveler at SAN recounted her experience with FOX 5/KUSI Friday morning, explaining that her flight was abruptly cancelled overnight.
“They boarded us onto the plane I think at like 11:30 (p.m.) and we sat on it until two in the morning and then they cancelled the flight,” she explained. “So everyone got off and then we came down here and we were sitting here until we could talk to someone at like 4:30 (a.m.). And they can’t get us on anything.”
Some airlines, including Delta and United Airlines, are issuing travel waivers, while other airlines are issuing meal and hotel vouchers.
For those planning to travel out of SAN in the next few days, it’s advised that you monitor your flight status for possible delays or cancellations as a result of this technology outage. The easiest way to do this is by using SAN’s flight status tracker tool.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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