Microsoft outage causes flight delays, cancellations at Chicago O'Hare, Midway airports
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A global Microsoft outage caused by a technical problem at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike forced airlines to cancel or delay hundreds of flights at O'Hare and Midway airports in Chicago.
According to the Chicago Department of Aviation, as of 11:15 a.m., a total of 205 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport, and 12 were canceled at Midway International Airport.
Another 713 flights were delayed at O'Hare, and 164 were delayed at Midway.
A United Airlines spokesperson said, while they are now resuming some flights, they expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout the day on Friday. They are also offering waivers to customers who wish to change their travel plans.
But as they worked to restore their systems, many planes were held at their departure airports. Those flights that were already airborne continued to their destinations.
American Airlines said a technical issue with a vendor did affect them, but they were able to re-establish their operations around 6 a.m.
"We've had this situation happen before with individual airline computer systems," said CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg. "United, Continental before them, more recently Southwest, but never on a scale like this. Hopefully this is a wake-up call to have a decent backup plan they can work with quickly."
A "madhouse"
One family visiting Chicago from France was planning to head to Washington D.C. for a few days before returning home to France, but their flight to D.C. has been canceled.
"We're not even sure to get on the next flight, because we have company tickets, so we're on standby, so we're just waiting," Marie Naamie said.
Savannah Scheffler said she received a text message saying her flight was canceled.
"The process of being on the phone with United for three hours was so stressful," she said.
Fellow traveler Nick Dedekian called the situation at O'Hare a "madhouse."
"I've seen people sleeping," he said. "I've seen people here for hours, really frustrated."
Airlines urged travelers to keep a close eye on their websites and flight trackers before coming to the airport.