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Airlines and financial institutions worldwide faced major disruptions following a global IT crash caused by an antivirus program update. The crash, which began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, affected systems running on Microsoft Windows using CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software, leading to flight cancellations and operational chaos.
Passenger crowds swelled at airports on Friday as operators struggled to maintain services. Multiple airlines and airports across Asia, including those in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Thailand, reported resuming operations by Saturday afternoon. “The check-in systems have come back to normal (at Thailand’s five major airports). There are no long queues at the airports as we experienced yesterday,” Airports of Thailand president Keerati Kitmanawat confirmed.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued an apology, stating that a fix had been deployed but warned that full recovery could take a few days. The White House assured that President Joe Biden’s team was in contact with CrowdStrike and affected organizations, ready to provide assistance.
Despite resuming operations, some congestion remained. Reports from the Netherlands and Britain indicated potential impacts on health services, while media companies like Britain’s Sky News and Australia’s ABC also experienced difficulties.
By Saturday, services in Australia had mostly returned to normal, although Sydney Airport still reported delays. Australian authorities warned of increased scam attempts following the outage.
Banks in Kenya and Ukraine, as well as mobile phone carriers and customer services, faced disruptions. Experts described the outage as unprecedented, with Junade Ali of Britain’s Institution of Engineering and Technology noting it as one of the largest incidents since 2017.
Some airports resorted to manual check-ins, leading to long lines and frustrated travelers. The US Federal Aviation Administration initially grounded all flights but later began re-establishing services.
India’s largest airline, Indigo, confirmed that operations had been resolved. Low-cost carrier AirAsia was still working to recover its systems and advised passengers to prepare for manual check-ins.
Chinese state media reported no impact on Beijing’s airports, while major European airports, including Berlin, resumed departures and arrivals.
Experts emphasized the need for resilient infrastructure against such widespread failures. “We need to be aware that such software can be a common cause of failure for multiple systems at the same time,” said John McDermid, a professor at York University in Britain. The incident underscored the critical reliance on a few tech companies and the necessity for robust systems to withstand such disruptions.
