It's safe to say that if you were flying today, you're probably not a happy camper. A mass tech outage affected thousands of flights and caused several major airlines to ground their planes. Frustrated travelers took to social media to ask questions, try to find answers, and vent their anger.
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Things are updating so fast on X that you'll come across 20 new posts a minute if not more. One person wrote, "Wow, picked a good day to NOT travel. Delta, United AND American Airlines? What a mess. Almost every single time I have flown within the past two years there has been some delay or cancelling."
One traveler celebrated their good fortune, writing, "Thank God my flight wasnt affected." Another wrote, "They just canceled all flights departing from Pittsburgh."
Yet another wrote, "Welp flight canceled."
One asked about a refund, "So if the flight is canceled are we getting a refund or rebooked?"
One traveler looked for alternatives, asking, "Flight canceled this am due to these outages. Entire fleets offline with no commercial flights out. Anyone flying private from South Florida to Asheville today with room for two?"
Yet another complained, "Of course I have critical financial docs for a million-plus dollar project due on the very day there's a Microsoft outage and I also have to fly home for a family weekend getaway that would likely have to be delayed with all the flights getting cancelled."
Flights Grounded
Due to the issue, airlines grounded their flights across the country. It's even affected flights internationally as well as banking and other services.
"The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines," the FAA also posted on social media. "Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved."
American Airlines appears up and running.
"Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," American Airlines said in a statement to CNN.
Likewise, the CEO of CrowdStrike, the firm behind the outage, said a fix had been sent.
The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," CrowdStrike's CEO said early Friday of the massive global tech outage. "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."
The CEO continued, "We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates. And will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."
