The Microsoft outage on Friday resulted in thousands of delayed or canceled flights across the country. According to the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, an update on its software disrupted US airlines’ scheduling and other functions by affecting Microsoft’s Windows Operating System.
Microsoft Outage
The US airline industry relies on overlapping systems, including technologies responsible for flight control in the cockpit and the tracking software used by the Federal Aviation Administration control towers.
While the FAA and airports didn’t report outages in their systems, and airlines didn’t have problems with their flight control, all these systems work together to ensure that planes operate on schedule.
Following the Microsoft outage, the FAA issued ground stops at the request of several airlines. Here, operators paused departures as Microsoft addressed the problem.
Fortunately, the outage didn’t affect mid-air flights as it affected the IT systems on the ground. However, these types of outages usually have a domino effect on the industry. Travelers posted on social media images of the Microsoft error page, otherwise known as the “blue screen of death” and long lines at ticket counters. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives calls the incident a “PR nightmare for CrowdStrike and Microsoft.”
Days to Fully Recover
As for when US airlines can return to normal operations, this type of outage takes days to fully recover.
William J. McGee, senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, said, “A thunderstorm that lasts 15 minutes can cancel flights for 12 hours.” McGee added, “I hope things get cleared up quickly, but I would warn travelers that they should expect residual effects from this, assuming things go well and that we don’t have a second episode, the effects from this could easily run through Sunday.”
However, the Department of Transportation classified the outage as “controllable” by the airlines. This means travelers can expect airlines to honor their customer service commitments.
