CNN —
All flights from several major US airlines, including
Delta, United and
American Airlines, were grounded Friday morning due to a communication issue – part of a massive debacle impacting businesses worldwide.
The ground stop impacted all flights from the airlines, regardless of their destination, the Federal Aviation Administration said. As of mid-Friday morning, more than 600 flights into, out of or within the United States had been canceled, according to
FlightAware.com.
“The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines,” the FAA posted
on social media. “Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved.”
The CEO of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that has Microsoft among its clients, said the IT issue causing a global outage has been identified and a fix has been deployed.
The technical crisis is also affecting international airlines as well as mass transit in New York and Washington, DC; banking in Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, Hong Kong Disneyland and the Israeli health service.
American Airlines later said it had resolved the issue affecting its operations.
“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” the American Airlines said in a statement to CNN.
It’s unclear how long the ground stop for the other airlines will last.