Major IT Glitch Grounds U.S. Flights and Disrupts Deliveries

A technical issue from an IT vendor caused major U.S. airlines like Delta Air and United Airlines to ground flights, leading to extensive delays and cancellations affecting thousands of passengers. The issue, linked to a Microsoft and CrowdStrike outage, also disrupted FedEx and UPS deliveries.

A technical issue from an IT vendor forced major U.S. airlines, including Delta Air and United Airlines, to ground flights on Friday, leading to widespread operational disruptions.

Delays and cancellations were expected to continue throughout the day as airlines worked to stabilize schedules. Over 1,400 flights were canceled, with nearly 4,000 delayed as of 10:00 am ET, according to FlightAware.

It remains unclear if the airline disruptions were related to outages at Microsoft and CrowdStrike, which impacted multiple sectors globally. While American, Delta, and United resumed some operations, they anticipated further delays and cancellations. Smaller carrier Frontier Airlines cited a 'major Microsoft technical outage' as the cause.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz attributed the issue to a defect in a content update for Microsoft Windows hosts. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration stated it was monitoring the situation and assisting affected airlines.

Delivery services FedEx and UPS also reported substantial network disruptions due to the IT issues. Microsoft noted its outage began around 6 pm ET Thursday, affecting multiple Azure services in the Central U.S. region.