Microsoft outages cause delays for Delta, United, and American airlines worldwide

Online systems of companies worldwide came to a standstill early Friday morning after a glitch with cybersecurity software CrowdStrike on Microsoft Windows computers.

The outage, which was not affected by a security breach or hack, has caused issues for airlines and other companies Friday. CrowdStrike said in a statement the problem has been “identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

“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 company said in a statement.

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” the company added.

The outage caused all three major domestic airlines to ground flights. There have been more than 1,500 delayed flights along with more than 900 flight cancellations in the United States on Friday, according to FlightAware.

American Airlines and United Airlines have both said flights have resumed but that delays will linger throughout the day. Delta Air Lines said it has still “paused its global flight schedule this morning.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said it is “closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines.”

Other industries besides the airline industry have been affected by the system outage, including other methods of transportation.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority was able to open its stations on time Friday morning, but its website remains offline as of 7:45 a.m. Some television stations, including NBC4 Washington in D.C. and Sky News in the United Kingdom had issues airing live news on television due to the outage.