Headaches at LAX, other airports as global tech outage cancels flights, strands passengers

A massive global technology outage has interrupted air travel at Los Angeles International Airport and other California airports, one of many impacts of the widespread disruption Friday.

“We urge passengers to please check your flight status with your airline prior to heading to the airport,” the LAX Airport account on the social media platform X posted Friday morning.

San Francisco International Airport also reported numerous delayed flights.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or a cyberattack. The company said the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.

The company’s president and chief executive, George Kurtz, posted a message on X Friday morning saying a fix had been made.

But meanwhile, the defect rippled across technology worldwide. There were reports that some airports were beginning to restart service, but it was unclear when things would return to normal.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services wrote on X Friday morning that officials are “closely monitoring the global software outage.”

“Initial reports indicate minor state system outages,” the office wrote. “However, all 911, public safety communications and critical infrastructure is functioning as expected.”

LAX first started to see impacts late Thursday. The outages were initially limited to Frontier Airlines and a few others and were caused partially by a software issue with Navitaire, a boarding pass printing system. The issue grew as more and more airlines began to face the same problems. Delta, American and United airlines were also affected.

A representative with LAX stressed that the issues facing the airport had nothing to do with flight safety. When a patch of code that caused the problem was fixed in CrowdStrike, the airport started to see airlines come back online, but it is still facing many more delays and cancellations than usual.

On Wednesday, there were 14 cancellations out of LAX. But on Friday, the airport already had more than 70 cancellations before 7 a.m.. At San Francisco International Airport, the numbers were similar. There were 16 cancellations on Wednesday compared with 76 so far Friday morning.

Back at LAX, shortly before 6 a.m., a Delta representative took to the intercom to tell passengers that the airport was still allowing planes to land, but that for the time being, all flights were grounded. He advised those travelers who are from L.A. to “go home” and check for updates on the company’s app or website.

He added that the company’s system was completely shut down, saying the resulting crippling of flight operations was “worse than 9/11.”

About half an hour later, another representative at the same gate — a flight headed to Minneapolis — announced that they were starting the preboarding process. Applause erupted.

Passengers reported waits of up to two hours to get through security into Terminal 2, as many people whose flights were canceled were instructed to retrieve their baggage before trying to rebook their flight.

Passengers whose flights had been canceled stood sullenly in line to rebook flights, but could not do that either because of the outages. One video out of LAX showed a woman hugging a Delta employee as she cried.

Outside were dozens of planes on the tarmac with nowhere to go.

Dozens of Delta flights were canceled the night before, with each announcement eliciting a collective groan from the crowd. Some passengers had waited through several hour long delays.

By 6 a.m. Friday, Delta, American and United airlines posted messages to X saying some flights were delayed and travel waivers were being issued so customers could change flights. Each airline Friday morning said their services had been restored and data on the flight tracking website FlightAware reported 41 cancellations out of the airport in the last 24 hours.

Shortly before 8 a.m. Friday about 100 people stood in a line waiting to speak with someone at the Spirit Airlines ticketing desk at LAX.

“They’re not going to do much,” a worker warned them. For those whose flights were canceled Thursday, he told them their “best bet is to get [a] refund online.”

Eli Osei, 20, stood in the line with two suitcases piled on a luggage cart. His flight had been scheduled for 11:49 p.m. Thursday. It was delayed first to 12:10 a.m., then to 12:57 a.m., he said. “Then the communication stopped and then it got canceled,” Osei said.

Osei said he put his two suitcases together and tried to sleep on them, but only got about 40 minutes of shut-eye before an airline employee announcement woke him. It was more bad news. There was nothing they could do, he said.

“It seems like no one really has any answers. You can’t blame anyone,” he said. “No one is really in the wrong.”

Osei had been staying at an Airbnb while in Los Angeles for an internship, so his options are limited, he said.

“I don’t really know what I’m going to do,” he said. “I imagine I could be here for a while.”

The impacts went beyond aviation.

Cedars-Sinai said the hospital was experiencing the same computer software outage that affected computer systems worldwide. The hospital was still open Friday and the outage’s specific effects weren’t immediately clear.

“We are actively working to address the issue and minimize any impacts,” the hospital wrote in a prepared statement. “We thank our patients and our staff for their flexibility during this unexpected event.”

KGO-TV, the ABC station in San Francisco, said “due to software issues that’s affecting ABC stations and other companies worldwide, we couldn’t go on air as scheduled for our 11 p.m. newscast.

Britain’s National Health Service said the outage caused problems at most doctors’ offices across England. Some hospitals in northern Germany canceled all elective surgery scheduled for Friday, but emergency care was unaffected.

In South Africa, at least one major bank said it was experiencing nationwide service disruptions as customers reported they were unable to make payments using their bank cards in stores. The New Zealand banks ASB and Kiwibank said their services were down as well.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.