A widespread Microsoft outage caused problems for airlines, banks, media outlets, and companies across the world on Friday.
Travelers at airports around the world, including those in North Texas, experienced long lines, delays, and flight cancellations as officials worked to resolve the issue.
Problems with emergency services were also reported amid the outage. In North Texas, City of Plano reported issues with its non-emergency number, but Plano 911 remained operational. The issue was resolved shortly after 6 a.m. on Friday.
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The outage also caused problems at local hospitals. Cook Children's Hospital reported experiencing issues while checking in patients on Friday morning and were forced to do so manually. Those issues have since been resolved as well.
Media outlets across the country, including NBC 5 News, were also impacted by the outage. While the issue persisted, NBC 5 News teams did not have full access to video, interviews, live cameras, and other elements that make a normal newscast possible.
Microsoft 365 addressed the issue on Thursday night in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that the company was "investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services." By Friday morning, Microsoft reported "seeing continuous improvements" as it worked to restore service to users.
According to CNBC, Microsoft’s cloud services have been restored after the outage, but many users are still reporting issues as of Friday morning.
The outage is related to issues with the Austin-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike's latest update, CNBC reported. The update affected Windows systems globally, with laptops showing an error screen known as the “blue screen of death.”
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz posted on X on Friday morning, saying that Mac and Linux computers are not impacted by the update issue and that the outage was not related to a security incident or cyberattack.
Here in North Texas, travelers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field were met with "blue screens of death" on monitors across the airport when they arrived to check in on Friday morning.
According to DFW Airport officials on Friday morning, “the airport has been made aware that a technology issue with an airline vendor is impacting several airline operations. We are gathering additional information about the scope of those impacts. Passengers are encouraged to check their flight status with their airline for the latest information.”
The outage impacted multiple airlines, including Fort Worth-based American Airlines. Airline officials said they were able to re-establish their operation by 4 a.m. CT. By 5 a.m. CT, the airline lifted a ground stop that was issued early Friday morning due to issues related to the outage, but customers continued to deal with flight delays and cancellations.
Delta, Frontier, and United were also impacted by the outage. Delta urged customers to use the Fly Delta app for updates, and United Airlines issued a waiver to help travelers change their plans while the airline worked to restore the systems impacted by the outage. As of Friday morning, Southwest Airlines was not experiencing any issues.
By 8 a.m. on Friday, 301 American Airlines flights had been cancelled and 274 were delayed according to FlightAware. Delta had cancelled 369 flights and 360 were delayed. United-had cancelled 180 flights and delayed an additional 293 flights.
Travelers continued to experience delays as airlines worked to remedy the effects of the outage. Lines at DFW Airport continued to build after 5 a.m. on Friday morning, and blue screens were visible on monitors around the airport.
DFW Airport and Dallas Love Field encouraged travelers to check with their airlines about the status of their flights as the outage continues.
Check back and refresh this page for the latest update. As developments unfold, elements of this story may change.
