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Planes began to take off again on Saturday after a massive IT crash caused by an antivirus program update disrupted airlines, banks, and media outlets worldwide. The chaos started when an update to a program operating on Microsoft Windows crashed systems across the globe, leading to flight cancellations and long queues at airports.
By Saturday, officials reported that operations had largely returned to normal in airports across Germany and France. Paris, gearing up for the Olympic Games, saw its airport operations stabilise. Multiple US airlines and Asian airports, including those in Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Singapore's Changi Airport, also resumed normal operations.
Microsoft estimated that 8.5 million Windows devices were affected by the global IT crash, representing less than one percent of all Windows machines. "While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services," Microsoft stated. The issue began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, affecting Windows users running CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software.
CrowdStrike acknowledged the problem in a Saturday blog post, explaining that an update released on Thursday night caused the system crash and the infamous "blue screen of death" error. CEO George Kurtz apologised publicly on CNBC, promising a fix and acknowledging the widespread impact. CrowdStrike indicated that it could take a few days for full system restoration.
Health services in the Netherlands and Britain reported potential impacts from the disruption. Media companies, including Britain's Sky News and Australia's ABC, faced significant difficulties, with Sky News halting Friday morning broadcasts. Authorities in Australia, Britain, and Germany warned of increased scam and phishing attempts exploiting the outage.
Banks in Kenya and Ukraine experienced digital service issues, and some mobile phone carriers faced disruptions. Junade Ali of Britain's Institution of Engineering and Technology called the scale of the outage "unprecedented," likening it to a significant incident in 2017.
The IT crash led to halted flights and manual check-ins at airports, causing long lines and frustration among passengers. Thousands of US flights were grounded, but airlines reported re-establishing services and working through backlogs. A senior US administration official confirmed that flight operations had resumed nationwide, though some congestion remained.
India's largest airline, Indigo, announced that operations had been "resolved," and low-cost carrier AirAsia continued efforts to recover its departure control systems. Chinese state media reported no impact on Beijing's airports.
Companies were left scrambling to patch systems and assess damage. CrowdStrike clarified that the issue was not related to a cyberattack. Experts questioned the practicality of expecting millions of users to implement the fix and called for a reconsideration of reliance on a few tech companies.
John McDermid, a professor at York University in Britain, emphasised the need for infrastructure designed to be resilient against common cause failures, highlighting the incident as a wake-up call for systemic vulnerability.
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