A slew of flights into or out of John Glenn Columbus International Airport were delayed or canceled Friday as airlines and airports continue to grapple with an international CrowdStrike tech outage affecting Microsoft and Windows products.
As of 1 p.m. Friday, 77 flights to and from the Columbus airport were delayed and 12 were canceled.
At Rickenbacker International Airport in southern Franklin County, all Allegiant Airlines flights set before 2 p.m. Friday were canceled, according to a post on X from Allegiant Airlines .
A faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and issues with Microsoft software caused American Airlines, Frontier Airlines and United Airlines to halt all flights early Friday. Delta Airlines, which was also affected by the outage, announced Friday afternoon that it resumed some flights and issued a travel waiver to affected travelers.
Delta is also asking customers to not book travel for any unaccompanied minors. All travel by unaccompanied minors is paused until Sunday, the airline said on its website. Those who are already booked will not be able to travel, the airline said.
Airports in Boston, Aspen, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, New York City, Santa Rosa and the U.S. Virgin Islands were completely closed Friday morning while airports in Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit and Minneapolis continued to have significant ground delays according to the Federal Aviation Administration .
Travelers outside John Glenn International Airport terminals waited in line to speak to airline representatives or sat with bags, trying to reach customer service online.
Stranded, frustrated passengers deal with delays at John Glenn Columbus
“It’s just disappointing,” said Colin Smith, a Mount Vernon resident waiting in line to speak with representatives from United Airlines. His flight to Jamaica had been delayed.
Kim Kramer, who works in the software industry, was trying to find a flight back home to Minneapolis after meeting with clients in Columbus. She sat outside Concourse C with an iPad perched on her suitcase, trying to find another flight.
“I’m looking at flights out of Rickenbacker Airport,” she said. “My Lyft driver said that’s another airport.”
Kramer said if an alternate flight tomorrow doesn’t depart as scheduled, she’ll miss an appointment for lash extensions and dinner with friends.
“I’m traveling for work, and I’m stranded,” Kramer added.
American Airlines and Frontier later resumed normal flight operations while United resumed some flights and all Delta flights remained grounded as of 8:10 a.m.
In Columbus, dozens of flights suffered significant delays or cancellations due to the tech outage. In a post on X , John Glenn Columbus International Airport said it was aware of the software issues airlines are facing and encouraged fliers to contact their airlines to stay up to date on flight information.
"We're here to help passengers, make (their flights) as smooth as possible," Columbus Regional Airport Authority spokesperson Breann Almos said.
What else was affected by the outage?
The outages disrupted London's Stock Exchange, caused major train delays in the U.K., sent British broadcaster Sky News off-air, forced medical facilities in Europe to cancel some services and caused disruptions at airports in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and India, USA TODAY reported .
It also caused disruptions to online infrastructure for public transportation in New York City and Washington D.C. While some of the agencies' websites and systems were down, buses and trains continued as normal, USA TODAY reported.
Australia was hit particularly hard by the outage, which caused disruptions in banks, media
What caused the outage?
A faulty update released by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike included a defect that causes Windows computers to crash and display the infamous "blue screen of death," USA Today reported .
A nearly simultaneous glitch in Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform caused disruptions to common Micrsoft 365 apps early Friday morning. The apps were back up and running as of 8:55 a.m. Friday morning, according to Microsoft's status page .
Dispatch reporter Shahid Meighan contributed to this report.
NHart@dispatch.com
@NathanRHart
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 'Stranded' John Glenn Columbus travelers search for new flights amid CrowdStrike outage chaos
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