Airlines grounded, flights canceled at Boston's Logan Airport amid worldwide Microsoft outage
BOSTON - The Microsoft outage around the world Friday grounded many flights for hours early Friday morning at Logan Airport in Boston.
Microsoft outage
Airlines joined banks, media companies, trains and health care systems struggling to operate because of an issue with Microsoft's 365 applications. The problem also affected Paramount, the parent company of CBS News and WBZ-TV.
Logan Airport status
At Logan Airport, 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.
Delta flights
Alice Kendall 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.
Crowdstrike outage
According to CBS News, the problem was an issue with Microsoft and CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity firm. It happened during a security file update.
Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said in a statement that they are "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," Kurtz said. "We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."
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.
