Airport terminals overflowed with people waiting for delayed flights or bumped off canceled ones Friday because of a global technology outage that also affected banks, hospitals, court systems and businesses worldwide.
Thousands of people at San Francisco International Airport, Mineta San Jose International Airport and San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport had to re-book flights after more than 100 between the three airports were canceled before 9:30 a.m.
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Thousands of others had to wait for their their regularly scheduled flights.
The outage was caused by a faulty software update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and affected computers running Microsoft Windows.
At San Francisco, 83 flights were cancelled by 9:30 a.m. and another 136 delayed, according to the flight-tracking company FlightAware.
“Airport systems are functioning, and airlines report systems are back online,” San Francisco Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel wrote in an email. “Residual impact on flights continue.”
The situation appeared to hit United Airlines and Delta Lines flights to and from and the airport particularly hard. FlightAware stats showed United had cancelled 57 flights into and out of the airport and delayed another 75. Ten of Delta’s flights had been cancelled and 12 delayed.
The situation was not quite as dire in San Jose or in Oakland. According to FlightAware, 13 flights had been cancelled and 48 delayed in San Jose. Seven flights in and out of Oakland had been canceled and 41 delayed.
The outage meant that flights throughout all of Friday may be delayed and that others could be canceled, officials said. They urged passengers to check with the airlines on their flight status.