Essential systems are stalling across the globe due to major IT issues at cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. The outage is affecting everything from credit card payments at small businesses to flights at major airlines, with users reporting the “blue screen of death” worldwide.
LAX is no exception, and the departure board is showing flight delays on Thursday night and Friday morning. Passengers on X are reporting long lines at LAX and blue screens on the monitors.
The FAA confirmed that Delta, American Airlines, and United requested a global ground stop on all flights. This morning, United and American Airlines posted on X that systems are starting to pick back up.
“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American,” wrote American Airlines on X. “As of 5:00AM ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation.”
United wrote, “As we work to fully restore these systems, some flights are resuming. Many customers traveling today may experience delays.”
What else is impacted by the IT outage?
Beyond flight delays, the outages have affected systems in numerous major ways around the world. Here in the U.S., 911 emergency lines are reportedly down in Alaska, New Hampshire, Arizona, and Ohio.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has also reported system outages, and stores in Australia are reporting payment system failures. In the U.K., IT issues are stalling major train companies, Sky News, and even GP surgery appointments.
Why is there a global IT outage?
Windows users reported the “Blue Screen of Death” around the world, which was originally linked to Microsoft. Later, cybersecurity company Crowdstrike was identified as the nexus of the outage. A faulty update on Windows 10 PCs is reportedly crashing computers, which are subsequently unable to restart.