Global Outage Grounds Major U.S. Airlines, Disrupts Multiple Industries

Major U.S. airlines such as Delta, United, and American faced ground stops due to communication issues linked to a widespread global outage. Operations were later resumed, and the FAA is closely monitoring the situation. The outage affected various sectors, including banking and healthcare, with Microsoft and Crowdstrike implicated in the disruptions.

Major U.S. airlines, including Delta, United, and American, faced significant disruptions on Friday, citing communication issues as a global outage affected multiple industries. American Airlines later resumed operations, and other airlines like Frontier and Spirit lifted their ground directives.

The cause of the groundings remains unclear, though there's speculation that outages at Microsoft and cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike may be involved. Smaller airlines such as Frontier, Allegiant, and SunCountry also reported outages. Frontier specifically mentioned a 'major Microsoft technical outage' affecting its operations.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration stated it is monitoring the technical issues impacting U.S. airlines and has responded to several requests for assistance with ground stops. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg assured that the department is closely watching flight cancellations and delays, holding airlines accountable for passenger needs. As of Friday morning, 518 flights were cancelled, with 720 delayed. Microsoft confirmed that its Azure services were affected.

(With inputs from agencies.)