DENVER — A global technology outage grounded some flights at Denver International Airport early Friday morning.
"It'll be a day that people remember and i was just unlucky to be traveling this day... Be patient today and be nice to the crew that are trying to fix the problem," Melissa McGibbon who was traveling to Salt Lake City amid the outage, told Denver7.
The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines. Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved. Monitor https://t.co/smgdqJN3td
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) July 19, 2024
for updates.
DIA posted on the social media site X just after 4:15 a.m., saying economy parking lots experienced issues with dispensing tickets and the lots were closed. But garages remained open.
Due to third party technical issues, various airlines are impacted. Please check with your carrier before leaving for DEN. Economy lots are experiencing ticket dispensing issues and are currently closed. Garages remain open. Updates to follow.
— Denver Int'l Airport (@DENAirport) July 19, 2024
The economy lots reopened around an hour later.
By 5:45 a.m., travelers looking at the departures page on DIA's website, still saw nothing updated to reflect delays due to the tech issues. It was a similar case on FlightAware.
The site only reported 95 delays and 45 cancellations in and out of DIA at 5:53 a.m.
Delta Airlines posted on the social media site X, it paused its global flight schedule Friday morning due to the technology issues impacting several airlines and business around the world.
Delta has paused its global flight schedule this morning due to a vendor technology issue that is impacting several airlines and businesses around the world. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to resume operations.
— Delta News Hub (@DeltaNewsHub) July 19, 2024
"Customers with flights scheduled for Friday should continue checking their flight status via the Fly Delta app and delta.com," the airline said.
Delta said it would issue a travel waiver that would allow customers scheduled to travel Friday morning to manage changes to their itinerary via delta.com or the Fly Delta app.
American Airlines said the company re-established operations just before 4 a.m.
Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5:00 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.
— americanair (@AmericanAir) July 19, 2024
JetBlue did not have issues with flights, according to the airline's corporate communications team. The company sent Denver7 the following statement:
"JetBlue’s operations remain normal, and we are not experiencing any system-wide delays or cancellations. While our operational systems were not impacted by this outage, customers should monitor their flight status and build in extra time in the event that this outage has impacted specific airports due to outages at other airlines, airport operators, or government agencies."
Long lines formed at DIA's American Airlines check-in counter just before 6 a.m. Friday.
Incredibly long lines at the @AmericanAir check-in counter at @DENAirport amid global IT outages - those blue screens say it all! @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/MB12vzGFax
— Adria Iraheta (@AdriaOnAir) July 19, 2024
"My family worked for American so I’m very loyal to them, but its really kind of shocking there's no communication not letting us know what's happening," Heather Ragan told Denver7.
Colorado Springs Airport posted on the social media site X just before 6 a.m. that all airlines were operational but experiencing some delays and cancellations. The airport asked travelers to contact their airline directly for any changes in flight status.
We’ve been made aware of a communications outage that has impacted flights globally. All airlines are operational but experiencing some delays / cancellations. Travelers are encouraged to contact their airline directly for any changes in flight status.
— Colorado Springs Airport (@COSAirport) July 19, 2024
By 7:40 a.m., the boards at DIA that display flight departure times were still offline.
Good luck trying to see your flight departure time at @DENAirport - the global IT outages have knocked these offline too @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/HcLFz2FAAM
— Adria Iraheta (@AdriaOnAir) July 19, 2024
Just before 8 a.m., FlightAware had updates with 209 flights delayed in and out of DIA, and more than 65 canceled.
While ground stops were lifted around 7:40 a.m. and operations had stabilized, according to DIA, the delays would still impact travelers.
Operations have largely stabilized at DEN amid worldwide technology issues. Airline ground stops have lifted at DEN — but delays are still impacting travelers.
— Denver Int'l Airport (@DENAirport) July 19, 2024
Please check with your airline directly before heading to the airport.https://t.co/cclbnnCjCC
By 9:45 a.m., FlightAware numbers jumped to 352 flights delayed and 89 canceled in and out of DIA.
"We were supposed to leave at 11:59am, Denver time, getting home by 6pm," said Gayla Sanders who was headed to Florida, "Now we're leaving at 11:59pm going to JFK."
A spokesperson for Denver International Airport said the impact to airport specific services was minimal. TSA and FAA were not impacted, DIA did however need to close their economy lot for several hours when the machines stopped printing out tickets. That issue has since been fixed.
"We're always looking at ways we can improve. So even though this was an issue that came in from a third party, we can always take a look at every opportunity to see how we can perhaps, you know, operate in the future in different ways," said Michael Konopasek, spokesperson with Denver International Airport.
As of 5:30pm, there were more than 900 total delays at DIA and 122 cancellations.
The outage started late Thursday night. United States Secretary of State Pete Buttigieg made a statement on the social media site X Thursday just before 10:15 p.m. regarding the impacts to Frontier Airlines.
He posted later in the afternoon encouraging passengers to visit flightrights.govwhich breaks down what the airlines are responsible for when it comes to compensation.
We are monitoring technical issues at Frontier Airlines leading to cancellations and delays across their network. Our department will hold Frontier, and all airlines, to their responsibilities to meet the needs of passengers.⁰⁰Visit https://t.co/fNoKsjoNQV to know your rights.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) July 19, 2024
The disruption stems from a reported defect with a Microsoft Windows update sent out, according to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. One of the company's main products is CrowdStrike Falcon, described on its website as a platform that protects against possible cybersecurity threats.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the IT issues causing the worldwide Microsft outage were identified and "a fix has been deployed." Kurtz stressed, the outage was not caused by a security incident or cyberattack.
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
Mac and Linux users were not impacted, according to Kurtz.
Numerous police departments across the United States have reported that the worldwide technology outage affected their 911 service Friday morning, according to Scripps News.
The Colorado Springs 911 Emergency Communications Center was one of them.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, Douglas County Sheriff's Office and Jefferson County Sheriff's Office told Denver7 they were not aware of any issues.
![Denver 911](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ff71744/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1080+0+0/resize/1280x720!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc9%2F41%2Fbc8ab3d445e89d8208a24612e22c%2Fdenver911.jpg)
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