As businesses across the globe get their systems back online following the widespread technology outage on Friday 19 July, the impact for airports and airlines is ongoing as air travel continues to recover from the disruption caused by the Blue Screen Error of Death which caused computers running Microsoft Windows to go offline. Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted.
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike was at the heart of the disruption, when it deployed a faulty update to systems running Microsoft Windows. It has confirmed the outage was not linked to a security incident or cyberattack. Microsoft estimated that 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected. Airlines across the globe were forced to ground flights when they were unable to issue boarding passes or fulfill check-in and bag drop requirements. Airports were also significantly impacted, unable to operate all of their services and queues building as they were unable to process both departing and arriving passengers.
At Berlin Brandenburg BER Airport in Germany all flights were suspended on the morning of Friday 19 July, while other air transport hubs, including Edinburgh, Melbourne, Dallas Fort Worth, Buffalo Niagara Falls, Cleveland Hopkins International and Spanish operator AENA were all impacted.
Although many services were back online and operating as normal by Saturday, George Kurtz, the CEO of security firm CrowdStrike cautioned complete recovery could take weeks. The outage also underlines the potential over-reliance across the industry on digital technology, cloud-based solutions and artificial intelligence (AI). It also underlines the need for airports to remain flexible and resilient, keeping robust contingency plans in place and ensuring they have human oversight of AI and technology systems.
As for CrowdStrike’s plan of action, in a statement it revealed it is doing a “thorough root cause analysis to determine how this logic flaw occurred.” It also stated that with this effort ongoing, it is “committed to identifying any foundational or workflow improvements to strengthen its process.”
