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2,600+ US flights canceled: United, American Airlines resume service after global outage

• A global IT outage caused delays and cancellations for air passengers around the world.
• Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops for all their flights early on Friday due to communication problems.
• The aviation sector is hit particularly hard due to its sensitivity to timings.

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William Sikora III was supposed to fly from Philadelphia to Detroit on Friday morning.

“We are stuck at this airport,” he posted in a video on X at 6 a.m., zooming in on blue airport screens showing system errors. “United, Delta, America, all this stuff is down. People are just sitting here. The apps still say our flight’s on time because they can’t update information in the apps.”

Air passengers around the world faced delays, cancellations and problems checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in a  massive IT outage  that also affected industries ranging from banks to media companies.

Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops for all their flights early on Friday due to communication problems, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

There were over 2,600 flights canceled and nearly 9,200 delays as of 5 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware . Most airlines were able to resume operations as the morning progressed, but many said they expected disruptions to continue throughout the day.

More on the outage: Global tech outage grounds flights, hits banks and media businesses

Megan Brown said Washington Dulles Airport was surprisingly calm, even as the airline industry was in turmoil. She said the airport was less crowded than usual, making for a quicker-than-expected security screening, and passengers seemed understanding about the disruptions.

"We just took the gamble and came here, and hopefully we’ll leave today,” Brown told USA TODAY by phone from Dulles. “There’s nothing you can do.”

Her family's 8:25 a.m. ET flight to San Francisco was delayed, but they were able to take off within a couple of hours. "A cheer just erupted as the gate agent said we are going to start boarding," she said.

Around the world, airports and airlines advised customers to arrive earlier than normal for flights.

Around 9 a.m. Sikora posted another video showing fellow travelers sitting on the floor and standing in the middle of a crowded Philadelphia International Airport terminal. 

“Everyone is in the same boat. Just wandering and sitting,” he told USA TODAY.

Issues online: Instagram may be the best social app to get your flight issues fixed. Here's why.

The cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike blamed the global tech outage on a defect in an update for Microsoft Windows hosts.

“Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected," Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz posted on X . "We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on. As noted earlier , the issue has been identified and a fix has been deployed. There was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts."

The aviation sector was hit particularly hard due to its sensitivity to timings. Airlines rely on a closely coordinated schedule often run by air traffic control. Just one delay of a few minutes can throw off a flight schedule for take-offs and landings for an airport and airline for the rest of the day.

"The issue affected many separate systems, such as those used for calculating aircraft weight, checking in customers, and phone systems in our call centers," United Airlines said in a statement. "After pausing all departures overnight, flights resumed on Friday morning and we are working diligently to get our customers to their destinations."

Story continues below.

Are flights still grounded? How long will flight delays last?

"Ground stops and delays will be intermittent at various airports as the airlines work through residual technology issues," the FAA said, adding that it's working closely with airlines to resume normal operations.

Travelers are advised to contact their airlines and monitor the FAA's website for the latest information.

How to find the reason for flight delay

Customers can ask airlines why their flight is canceled or delayed, but the Department of Transportation confirmed that it considers the delays and cancellations caused by Friday's IT outage to be "controllable" by the airlines. While airlines may say they didn't cause the computer error, it means that the DOT will hold them responsible for upholding the commitments they've made to customers when it comes to policies like rebooking or hotel and meal vouchers as the mess gets sorted out. Every airline's policy is outlined on the DOT customer service dashboard.  

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics also tracks causes of delays and cancellations.

Airline waivers

Airlines are doing what they can to provide extra flexibility to those affected by the outage.

• American issued a waiver for affected travelers covering all of its U.S. hubs.
• Delta issued a waiver allowing all passengers traveling Friday to rebook their flights.
• Frontier issued a waiver offering rebooking for travelers whose flights were delayed by more than 3 hours. Customers whose flights were canceled may opt for a refund or credit toward future travel.
• United issued a waiver for select airports so passengers can make changes if their flights are affected, though a United spokesperson told USA TODAY that nearly all of the airline's flights depart or arrive in one of the airports covered by the waiver.
• Spirit issued a waiver allowing customers who are booked to fly Friday or Saturday through any airport in its network to change their flights at no additional charge.

What happens if my flight is canceled?

Department of Transportation rules  require all airlines to offer customers a refund if their flights are canceled for any reason, but customers may be entitled to additional compensation if a cancellation is within the airline's control.

What should I do if my flight is delayed?

If your flight is experiencing a long delay, the Transportation Department suggests asking airline staff if they will pay for meals or a hotel room.

The DOT dashboard reflects airlines' official policies, but many carriers handle compensation for delays on a case-by-case basis and may provide vouchers or other benefits in some situations that are not formally covered.

What is considered a significant flight delay?

Each airline defines significant delays differently, but the DOT's dashboard identifies which airlines provide compensation for controllable delays of 3 or more hours.

For instance, all major U.S. carriers are supposed to provide a meal voucher for flights delayed by at least 3 hours for reasons within their control. Additionally, Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest offer credit or a travel voucher when a controllable delay "results in passenger waiting for 3 hours or more from the scheduled departure time," according to the dashboard.

How to file compensation for a delayed flight

Travelers seeking monetary compensation for delayed flights should file a claim with their respective airlines. Passengers seeking other types of compensation, like frequent flyer miles, may be able to request those through the airline's customer service.

Contributing: Andrew Mills, Joanna Plucinska and Lisa Barrington ; Reuters

The Key Points at the top of this article were created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reviewed by a journalist before publication. No other parts of the article were generated using AI. Learn more .

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Global software outage disrupts travel, emergency services in metro Phoenix

A global technology outage on Friday morning caused issues with emergency services, health care providers and many other sectors, bringing some computerized aspects of everyday life in Arizona to a halt.

Emergency response systems were reported down at some of the Phoenix area's biggest police agencies and health care providers early Friday, affecting vital services across the region.

As of Friday afternoon, many of the affected groups were back online and returning to regular operations, though some issues still lingered.

The global technology outage was caused by a faulty security update, according to cybersecurity CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike , a U.S. firm that advertises being used by over half of Fortune 500 companies, said one of its recent content updates had a defect that impacted Microsoft's Windows Operating System, adding the incident was "not a security incident or cyberattack."

The company's CEO, George Kurtz,  apologized for the disruptions in a post on X,  noting the issue has been identified and isolated and a fix has been deployed. CrowdStrike is "working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on."

Meanwhile, Microsoft said "the underlying cause has been fixed" and impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services have been recovered, though the company continues to monitor the issue.

What is CrowdStrike? What to know about company tied to tech outage affecting Arizona

Police and ambulances dispatch emergency services manually

Because their computers weren't working, some police and ambulance providers were dispatching cars manually. Emergency dispatchers were able to take 911 calls but were writing down information on paper to share with first responders.

The widespread systems outage affected emergency operations in Phoenix, Mesa, Goodyear, Peoria, Scottsdale and Queen Creek.

Phoenix Police Department spokesperson Donna Rossi said the issue began late Thursday night. 911 call centers were able to take calls but had to dispatch officers manually.

See the list: Global tech outage affected these Arizona agencies and businesses

"We are working off cards right now ... We have no internet. We have no CAD ... we're still working on it," another Phoenix dispatcher said early Friday.

A dispatcher for ambulance company American Medical Response confirmed its company’s system was “completely down" early Friday morning.

The dispatcher, Lizzy, said the company could take 911 calls but must dispatch by phone manually instead of computer. She would not provide her last name, citing company policy.

Not every agency in the region was affected. The Gilbert Fire & Rescue Department and Tempe Police Department, for example, reported no issues.

The Glendale Police Department confirmed experiencing a brief internet outage that was restored as of 1:30 a.m. Friday. "There was not been an impact to the public or calls for service," said Sgt. A. Leyvas, a department spokesperson.

Arizona hospitals and health care services affected

Several major health care groups in Arizona were impacted by the technology outage, including Banner Health, Dignity Health, St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center and Valleywise Health.

Banner Health officials said its operations were impacted by the global system outage, forcing the closure of all Banner locations except for hospitals and urgent cares.

"We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to reopen and reschedule appointments at these locations as soon as possible," Banner Health said in a statement.

St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center confirmed system outages, but a telephone operator said she could not provide details about the extent of the problems. 

Valleywise Health had some IT systems affected, but its emergency departments and trauma center were open, and the hospital was continuing with scheduled surgeries, spokesperson Michael Murphy said.

"In some cases, our health care professionals had to resort to paper medical charting, but our IT teams are carefully bringing back all our systems," he said. "We want to assure the community Valleywise Health is open and continuing to provide high-quality care to every patient, every time."

Other hospitals' computers were up and running. "Our systems are not down," said Camille Olson, house supervisor at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center, said early Friday morning. "Right now, everything is working."

Travelers affected by outage

The departures area of Terminal 4 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was busy with travelers Friday morning.

The check-in lines for Southwest Airlines, which had the most delayed flights Thursday, had low traffic. But across the room, people were lined up to check in for flights with American Airlines.

The line for checking in with Delta Air Lines in Terminal 3 was another story. Some people appeared frustrated and tired, others accepted they had to wait it out.

“It’s no use getting upset when you’re seeing everyone in the same place,” said Kim Butler of Alaska. “You get the chance to meet interesting people.”

Butler, who had a flight around noon that was delayed, had been waiting in line about 30 minutes. But he was still much closer to the back of the line than the front.

Other travelers like Roberto Gavino, 43, had been waiting at the overall airport much longer. The man from Tucson was supposed to leave at midnight Thursday to Panama with his wife for vacation. But he said the flight was pushed to midnight Saturday.

“I’m in line to see if I can try to leave today," he said. "We have people waiting for us.”

The Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport flight status page showed that no arrivals or departures were scheduled for Friday morning, as Allegiant Air was affected by the outage. By Friday afternoon, several flights were listed as canceled, rescheduled or delayed.

Airlines affected: Why are flights delayed in Phoenix right now? What passengers need to know

Government systems affected

Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office released a detailed list of critical state services that were affected by Thursday night’s outage. The state has stepped up monitoring for issues to a Level 2, Hobbs said in a statement.

The state Department of Homeland Security was helping to triage network issues at state and local governments, as well as private businesses, Hobbs said.

As of early evening Friday, these services were still dealing with the outage:

• Call centers at the state’s Motor Vehicle Division offices are down, so calls are being routed to a higher level of call center.
• Cameras at two MVD offices, in Kingman and Nogales, are down, which could complicate driver license renewal.
• Indian Health Services has minor outages.
• Problems with commercial vehicle permitting services at the state and international borders have been resolved and they are back in operation. That's the same case for ADOT's dynamic message boards and cameras along the state’s highway system.
• Early voting centers across the counties are down. The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office was working to get them back in operation and reports there have been no security breaches.
• The state Department of Revenue’s website (aztaxes.gov) was down in the morning but was operating as of Friday afternoon.  

Some stores only taking cash after outage

The effects of the technology outage even trickled down to stores, causing some places to only take cash payments.

Some Starbucks locations were  taking only cash on Friday morning, according to multiple media reports and consumers on X were complaining about not being able to use the Starbucks mobile app.

Circle K point-of-service terminals were reported down in the Phoenix area as well on Friday morning, causing clerks to only take cash at stores. Circle K officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Arizona Republic reporters Laura Daniella Sepulveda , Sasha Hupka, Jose R. Gonzalez, Jimmy Jenkins, Sam Kmack and Alexandra Hardle contributed to this article.

Impact worldwide: Global tech outage grounds flights, hits banks and media businesses

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Mass IT outage hits airports, businesses and broadcasters around the world

Major airlines, medical facilities, businesses and police forces around the world were hit by a massive information technology glitch Friday, with Microsoft computers around the world showing " Blue Screens of Death ."

The cybersecurity company CrowdStrike said Friday that the outages were the result of a routine software update gone wrong, "not a security incident or cyberattack."

CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity services and software for many large corporations that use Microsoft systems, later issued a new software update that automatically fixed some computers. But others must be manually restarted and patched, causing huge delays.

Microsoft announced late Friday morning that its 365 apps and services had recovered, and CrowdStrike said a fix had been deployed early in the morning. But some frozen computers couldn’t receive CrowdStrike’s automatic update, leading to some of the problems lingering into the weekend.

Many flights were delayed as of Friday afternoon . Starbucks locations in New York had resumed normal wait times , despite its mobile order-ahead feature still not working.

The glitch brought chaos to a number of key institutions and businesses around the world that may take some time to clear up.

Many flights were grounded across the globe, and stores and broadcasters in several countries went offline. According to the aviation technology company FlightAware, the tech glitch was responsible for more than half of the U.S.'s 1,352 flight delays and cancellations before 8 a.m. ET on Friday.

Major carriers, including American Airlines , Delta Air Lines and United Airlines , all issued ground stops Friday morning citing communications issues. Passengers traveling to the United States from as far away as Japan had their flights canceled. Delta ordered a “global ground stop,”  said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a member of the House subcommittee on cybersecurity.

Follow live updates on the global tech outage

George Kurtz, president and CEO of CrowdStrike, said the problems could persist.

“It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover,” he told NBC’s “TODAY” show on Friday.

Kurtz said the company was “deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this,” adding the issue had been fixed on its end.

“Many of the customers are rebooting the system, and it’s coming up, and it’ll be operational because we fixed it on our end,” he said. “We’re just trying to sort out where the negative interaction was,” he said of the faulty update that affected Windows PCs.

Earlier, in a post on X , Kurtz said that the outages were due to a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

In Europe, Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport said there would be delays to passenger check-ins “because of a technical fault,” and Aena, which manages 46 airports in Spain, said “an incident in the computer system” could cause delays. Several budget airlines in South Korea reported technical problems and delays, The Associated Press said. Sydney Airport, one of Australia’s largest, said there would be delays.

Paris' airport authority said in a statement that while its systems were not affected ahead of next week's Olympic Games opening ceremony, "this situation has an impact on the operations of airlines at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports: delays in check-in, delays and temporary suspension of some flights," according to the AP.

The Paris Olympics organizing committee told Reuters that while the outage was slowing its operations, its ticket sales remained unaffected. Elsewhere in the world of sports, British soccer team Manchester United delayed a ticket release scheduled for Friday, blaming problems with Microsoft.

That was just one of many businesses affected across the United Kingdom, with train operators blaming IT outages for cancellations Friday morning and the London Stock Exchange saying that a “3rd party global technical issue” had prevented its regulatory news service from posting any new items.

The country’s National Health Service posted on X that “the NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with a [general practitioner] appointment and patient record system.” The NHS that the system’s emergency phone service was still operating.

In Israel, at least 15 major hospitals were affected, according to media there. However, most medical centers had either returned to normal operations or reverted to manual operations. The emergency line of the country’s ambulance service was also affected.

At 2:20 a.m. ET, Alaska State Troopers said that 911 and nonemergency phone numbers across the state were not working “due to a nationwide technology-related outage."

The glitch affected news outlets, too, including NBC News. Sky News, NBC News' British partner broadcaster, was temporarily unable to air live news. Broadcasters in Australia also reported problems.

In a blog posted late Friday afternoon , Kurtz wrote that CrowdStrike staffers would be on call over the weekend to help affected customers, and warned of hackers and scammers exploiting the situation.

“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this," he said. "I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives."

I cover early morning U.S. breaking news, everything from severe weather to crime. I'm based in London and have worked for American news outlets since 2013.

Kevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy and technology policy for NBC News.

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Worldwide tech outage affecting Florida airports, banks. Microsoft 365 working to fix problems

Microsoft said users can restore their windows365 cloud pc to a 'known good state'.

A worldwide outage is affecting personal computers, airlines, media companies, banks, and telecom firms around the world this morning.

Gianna Montesano , trending reporter with TCPalm of the USA TODAY Network-Florida, was at Fort Lauderdale International Airport early Friday morning.

"I'm hearing from passengers that Spirit employees are calling passengers up by flight so they can be manually administered boarding passes."

In the U.S., Frontier Airlines , American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines were among those who grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft said it resolved a cloud-services-related outage that impacted several carriers.

Microsoft 365 said it was aware and working to resolve a problem "impacting users' ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services."

It is not clear at this time whether the call to ground flights was related to the Microsoft outage. 

What caused the global outage?

Microsoft said the preliminary root cause of the outage was "A configuration change in a portion of our Azure backend workloads, caused interruption between storage and computer resources which resulted in connectivity failures that affected downstream Microsoft 365 services dependent on these connections."

CrowdStrike said on X the problem was caused "by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts."

Current status of worldwide tech outage: 'Underlying cause of issue fixed'

Microsoft 365 reported at 8:30 a.m. EDT:

"We're continuing to apply mitigation actions to provide relief from the residual impact affecting the remaining impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services.

"Our telemetry is indicating that the remaining impacted scenarios are progressing towards a full recovery and we're closely monitoring to ensure this progress continues."

At 6:30 a.m., Microsoft said the underlying cause of the issue had been fixed .

What can Microsoft customers do to fix problems on their computer?

Microsoft365 Status posted on X there is something customers with computer problems can do.

"We're aware of an issue with Windows 365 Cloud PCs caused by a recent update to CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor software.

" To fix this, users may restore their Windows 365 Cloud PC to a known good state prior to the release of the update (July 19, 2024) as documented here .

CrowdStrike communicating directly with customers affected by outage

"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 issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed." the company posted on a CrowdStrike blog and on X.

"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the suppo r t portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

"Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

The company also posted customers should make sure they're communicating with  CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. 

CrowdStrike President and CEO George Kurtz emphasized on X the problems were not caused by a "security incident or cyberattack."

What is CrowdStrike?

According to its website, Crowdstrike launched in 2012 and currently has the "world's most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise."

Services offered by CrowdStrike include :

• Prepare, Advisory services : "CrowdStrike Services help you prepare and train to defend your organization against sophisticated threat actors using real-life simulation exercises."
• Respond, Breach Services: "CrowdStrike Services help you stop breaches, investigate incidents, and recover from attacks with speed and surgical precision."
• Fortify, Advisory Services: "CrowdStrike Services help you enhance your cybersecurity practices and controls with actionable recommendations to fortify your cybersecurity posture."

Users across several platforms report tech outages on DownDetector

DownDetector.com , which provides service outage information, showed problems people were having with several companies, including:

• Microsoft 365
• Bank of America
• ADT Security
• United Airlines
• American Airlines
• Allegiant Air

Of those reporting problems with Microsoft 365:

• 58% were with Onedrive
• 26% were server connections
• 16% were with Outlook

Microsoft 365 investigating issue

Microsoft 365 Status posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, "We're investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services."

The company later posted it was "rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion."

What Microsoft 365 apps could be affected by outage?

The Microsoft 365 Admin Center said the outage is affecting users' ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.

Impacted services include:

• PowerBI: Users may notice that their service is in read-only mode while we address impact.
• Microsoft Fabric: Users may notice that their service is in read-only mode while we address impact.
• Microsoft Teams: Users may be unable to leverage Microsoft Teams functions including presence, group chats, and user registration.
• Microsoft 365 admin center: Admins may be intermittently unable to access the Microsoft 365 admin center and any action may be delayed if accessible.

Microsoft services that have been 'recovered'

Our internal telemetry and customer signals indicate that the following services are recovered:

• Microsoft Defender
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
• Microsoft Defender Experts
• Microsoft Intune
• Microsoft OneNote
• OneDrive for Business
• SharePoint Online
• Windows 365
• Viva Engage
• Microsoft Purview

Why are flights from Florida delayed, canceled today?

Flights to and from Florida are among those affected around the world by a Microsoft outage caused by a recent update.

Microsoft 365 announced the issue was "caused by a recent update to CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor software."

According to FlightAware , as of 10:30 a.m., there have been more than 27,000 flight delays today and more than 2,700 cancellations.

Impact of outage at Orlando International Airport

Orlando International Airport said it "has experienced limited impac t from the worldwide technology glitch that affected IT systems at several U.S. airlines.

"We have been informed that the airlines being impacted locally are gradually returning to normal operations. As of Friday morning this is the impact at MCO":

• Total delays within, into, or out of the United States today at MCO: 74• Total cancellations today at Orlando Intl: 65

MCO recommended recommend passengers:

• Check with their airlines for the latest flight information
• Allow extra time for check-in and baggage processing
• Monitor our airport’s website and social media for updates

Global tech outage: Check on flight status at RSW in Fort Myers, Punta Gorda Airport

FrontierAir lifts ground stop as systems 'normalize'

Frontier Airlines posted a travel advisory on its website Thursday night, saying, " Frontier Airlines flight operations were impacted by a major Microsoft technical o utage . This led to several flight cancellations and delays."

The airline offered customers whose flights were delayed by more than 3 hours or canceled one of the following options:

• Rebooking at no extra charge
• Flight cancellation with credit
• Flight cancellation with refund

Around midnight, the airline said the ground stop had been lifted and "systems are gradually normalizing. We are in the process of resuming flight operations."

Spirit Airlines offering flexible travel during Microsoft outage

Spirit Airlines notified customers and posted on its website a flexible tr a vel policy during the Microsoft outage.

The company noted the outage is affecting flights to all cities for travel dates July 19-20.

Customers who want to rebook their flights will have the fare difference waived through July 27.

Spirit also said customers can make changes to their reservations affected by this event by going to My Trips , or by calling the Spirit Reservations Center at 855-728-3555 to make flight changes.

Contact the airline by texting "Hello" to 48763 or WhatsApp directly at 855-728-3555.

What's happening at Florida airports?

A check around Florida airports via the Federal Aviation Administration's website shows the following message "Due to AIRLINE REQUEST, departure traffic destined to ALL airports will not be allowed to depart until at or after 11:00 UTC." (which would be 7 a.m. EDT).

Similar messages show departure times ranging from 12:00 UTC and 10:30 UTC.

Airports with the same or similar messages include:

• Miami International Airport, MIA
• Fort Lauderdale International Airport, FLL
• Orlando International Airport, MCO
• Tampa International Airport, TPA

"Spirit Airlines has passengers waiting outside terminal doors (at FLL) due to the worldwide outage," said Gianna Montesano , trending reporter with TCPalm.

Tech outage affecting businesses around the the world

British broadcaster Sky News went off-air and train companies in the U.K. reported long delays. 

London's Stock Exchange also reported experiencing disruptions. Some hospitals also reported difficulties processing appointments and several chain retail stores said they couldn't take payments.

Spanish authorities reported a "computer incident" at all its airports.

Berlin's main airport  said check-ins were delayed because of a "technical fault."

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned passengers of potential disruptions which it said would affect "all airlines operating across the Network." 

In Australia, media, banks, and telecoms companies suffered outages, which the government said appears to be linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. It was not immediately clear whether all reported outages were linked to Crowdstrike problems.

Reaction to tech outage on social media

Contributor: Kim Hjelmgaard , USA Today