Airlines grounded, flights canceled at Boston's Logan Airport amid worldwide Microsoft outage
BOSTON - The Microsoft outage around the world grounded many flights Friday at Logan Airport in Boston. Frustrated passengers faced long delays and cancellations, as some waited in line for hours trying to answers.
Microsoft outage
Airlines joined banks, media companies, trains and health care systems struggling to operate because of an issue with Microsoft's 365 applications overnight. The problem also affected Paramount, the parent company of CBS News and WBZ-TV.
Logan Airport status
At Logan Airport's Terminal A, all passengers were told around 5:30 a.m. that all flights on all airlines in Boston were grounded until 8 a.m. because of the outage. However, a JetBlue spokesperson later told WBZ they had not grounded flights.
Anyone heading to the airport is urged to check on their flights first. Delays are expected throughout the day.
Travelers were hit with the news as they arrived at the airport for their morning flights, many of them unaware of what had happened. Long lines formed at airline desks inside the terminals because the software for flight routes was down.
"We're going to Atlanta for a family reunion of 300 people expected to be there," said Lorenzo Marshall. "Just had to text my dad the bad news."
Flight tracking service FlightAware reported that more than 200 flights at Logan were delayed Friday and more than 60 were cancelled.
"We are trying to get to our daughter's basketball tournament in Chicago tonight," said Jen Rupp. "Our flight was canceled yesterday and canceled again today, so we're trying to get on a different flight to Chicago."
Travel plans disrupted
"We got a $300 a night Boston hotel, but the [airport] Hilton was $600," said Jonathan Mills, who saw his flight get canceled to Pittsburgh. "We felt relieved that we were able to get it, or we thought we would be sleeping in the airport," continued Jonathan's wife Corinne Mills.
"Tried to get us a new flight out of Providence, but we can't make that one," said Edeline Andrade. Her family is supposed to get on a cruise ship tomorrow in Miami, but now they may miss it, "I think our best option is to fly into the first port in Aruba."
"Our day pretty much consisted of waiting in lines. I talked to someone who is going to miss their wedding," said Edeline's brother Owen Andrade.
Delta flights
Alice Kendall of South Carolina was planning to leave Boston Friday morning on a Delta flight.
"We were first told we couldn't check our bags in because they didn't have, all the computers were down to check the bags. They told us to get our tags at the kiosk, but then the kiosk didn't work either. So then we went back, then we went back to the desk and then they told us our flight to Salt Lake, which we were connecting to Sun Valley, Idaho, that Salt Lake was cancelled and there was no way for us to get out today," Kendall told WBZ-TV.
"We actually had a non-stop flight from Boston to Tampa that was scheduled for 7:45. It initially started, there was going to be a two-hour delay, and then it just kept getting delayed," Ann Kurian, a Delta passenger from Melrose, told WBZ.
"It just was like a whole, chaos. Then, we ended up waiting there, and just 10 minutes before boarding, they canceled everything."
Delta lifted the grounding at Logan just after 8 a.m. and some flights started to board passengers.
"After everything that we've seen today I do feel lucky that I do have a boarding pass here to show, but we'll see if that flight takes off. I'm crossing my fingers," passenger Robbie Miller of Dorchester told WBZ.
American Airlines flights
American Airlines announced on social media they issued a travel waiver for their customers who had issues because of the outage Friday.
Crowdstrike outage
The problem was an issue with Microsoft and CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity firm. It happened when CrowdStrike pushed out a flawed update that impacted Windows computers.
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said in a statement that this "was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected."
"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."
Boston subway service
Public transportation in Boston did not appear to have any major issues Friday morning. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) said there were no delays, but the software issues might affect bus and train time tracking times and some digital signs might not be correct.
Massachusetts outage impact
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said she is "closely monitoring" the outage and fallout.
"Our team is working to assess and mitigate the impact on Massachusetts. We're in contact with public safety, health care, and transportation officials, but residents may experience delays while we resolve the outage," she said in a statement.
Boston Police services not affected
Boston Police said they haven't had any issues and that they were receiving 911 calls and dispatching officers as usual Friday.
The outage was affecting some of their internal systems and the software they use to write and file police reports.
"We had to go the old fashioned way with a pen and paper," a spokesperson told WBZ.
