Major US Airlines American, United, and Delta Grounded Due to Communication Issues

Early Friday, several major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United, and Delta, grounded flights due to a technical issue affecting IT systems. This incident is part of a broader series of mass Microsoft outages that disrupted airports, banks, broadcasters, and businesses worldwide.

Microsoft acknowledged the issue linked to Windows running CrowdStrike's cybersecurity technology. "The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed," stated CrowdStrike's CEO early Friday. Some services resumed, and American Airlines reported it had "safely re-established" operations.

In a company advisory seen by CNN, CrowdStrike notified customers early Friday that it was “aware of reports of crashes” involving its software on Microsoft Windows operating systems. The advisory detailed that the company's engineers took steps to resolve the issue, advising customers to reboot their computers and take additional actions if they continued experiencing technical problems.

The issue is limited to Falcon, one of CrowdStrike’s primary software products, and does not affect Mac or Linux operating systems, according to the advisory.