A glitch within an Austin-based cybersecurity company's software update grounded flights and disrupted technology systems around the world Friday.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport said travelers flying out should check their flight status before heading to the airport. American, Delta and United grounded all of their flights Friday morning after the company, CrowdStrike, pushed out a software update to Microsoft Windows systems that contained a "defect," the company said in a statement.
"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," the company said. "Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."
As of 1:12 p.m., ABIA said all airlines were back to operating, but some passengers should expect significant changes to their flight schedule.
Mariel Lubeck, who was trying to fly out Friday morning, said she didn't have information on her flight yet and was unable to load her airline's app.
"There are tons of people here [and] there are probably three flights at one gate," she said. "People are trying to figure out what gate [their flight is] going to be at."
Driver's license offices were closed statewide due to the issue, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. DPS said it did not have an estimate for when the offices will reopen. The Travis County Tax Office said it would be closed until Monday.
The outage also affected 911 call centers in some states, disrupted hospital and banking systems worldwide, and knocked some television stations off the air, NPR reported.
The City of Austin said the outage did not affect local 911 operations, but it did require dispatchers to use radios for a few hours instead of their computer systems. The 311 call center was also unavailable for about three hours overnight, the city said.
Baylor Scott & White Health said it was experiencing issues at its hospitals locally. "Patient care is safely continuing as we work through issues related to the technical disruption that is impacting computer systems across the globe," the hospital system said in a statement to KUT. Ascension Seton said some third-parties the hospital system works with were experiencing issues.
Capital Metro, Austin's public transit agency, said it was also affected by the global technology outage Friday morning, but its systems were back up and running.
This is a developing story.
KUT's Nathan Bernier, Olivia Aldridge, Luz Moreno-Lozano and Katy McAfee contributed reporting to this story.
