Global outage grounds flights in Las Vegas, affects other businesses

Elizabeth Owusu arrived at Harry Reid International Airport on Thursday ready to return to Connecticut after being in town for a conference.

Twenty-two hours later, her and her family members were still waiting to get out of Las Vegas on an American Airlines flight.

“They delayed our flight, which made us miss our connecting flight, therefore they have to put us on standby,” Owusu said.

Arriving and departing flights at Harry Reid were affected by a global Microsoft outage that also disrupted banks and media outlets across the world.

The Federal Aviation Administration said United, American, Delta and Allegiant airlines had all been grounded. Allegiant is based out of Las Vegas.

“A third-party system outage is impacting computer systems across the world, including Allegiant’s,” the company said Friday morning in a statement. “Customers may experience delays when booking, checking in or accessing boarding passes. We are working diligently with our provider to resolve the issue and apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our passengers.”

The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the problem started when it deployed a faulty update to systems running Microsoft Windows. The company said the incident was not a cyberattack.

Many companies across the globe use CrowdStrike for security for their operating systems using Microsoft, meaning the technical problems have hindered various industries in many cities around the globe.

George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike, said in a post on X that “the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.” No timeline for the fix was included in the note, which reiterated that it was not a security issue.

Air travel was experiencing some of the most notable troubles, with airlines in the United States, Europe and Asia losing access to check-in and booking services.

FlightAware, which provides real-time flight tracking data, said there were 114 flight cancellations — both departures and arrivals — out of the Las Vegas airport as of midday. The firm reported Friday afternoon that there had been 36,627 delays worldwide — 8,376 in the U.S. — and 2,542 cancellations for U.S. flights.

The Las Vegas airport was crowded Friday with stranded travelers scrambling to make other arrangements. Long lines were everywhere, and many travelers expressed frustrations.

Ruby Abroampa, a mental health counselor and Owusu’s sister, was worried she wouldn’t be able to return to Connecticut in time to meet with clients. “Seriously, I just feel like I’m tired,” she said.

After waiting around the airport Thursday, Abroampa’s party returned to a hotel and arrived back at Harry Reid at 7 a.m. Friday start waiting again. One member of their party is scheduled to start college classes on Monday.

In a post on X, Las Vegas airport officials said to expect delays and longer waits at the airport. They advised travelers to “check with your airline for the status of your flight and use online services to change or adjust travel plans.”

Pete Buttigieg, the secretary of transportation, posted on social media that “we’re continuing to address effects on transportation systems from today’s widespread tech outage.”

He urged passengers to check with their airlines for updates and visit the transportation department’s website for information about passenger protections. The department has reminded airlines of their responsibilities to passengers, he said.

“As with any mechanical or technical failure, airlines are required in this case to take care of passengers experiencing long delays or cancellations.” Buttigieg said.

The White House said President Joe Biden was briefed on the outages.

The outage was also felt along the Las Vegas Strip, where BetMGM — the mobile sportsbook by MGM Resorts International — said its betting app was down due to the Microsoft issue.

“We are working hard to resolve this and will update customers when we are up and running,” BetMGM posted on X. “Thank you for your patience.”

Station Casinos suffered a temporary outage Thursday night, the company said. Social media posts showed slot machines down at Green Valley Ranch Resort.

“The company had a temporary outage late Thursday night due to a third-party vendor, lasting a few hours,” Station said in a statement to the Sun. “All systems companywide were quickly restored to full capacity early this morning.”

The Nye County Sheriff’s Office said some of its computer systems were down, but 911 and nonemergency lines were still working. It called the outage a minimal disruption.

Metro Police told the Sun its systems were not affected by the outage.

AMR Las Vegas and MedicWest Ambulance were affected, the company said. The ambulance services were operating on backup and redundant systems, officials said.

“We implemented our backup procedures immediately, which include utilizing direct phone line communication with 911 centers,” the company said.

A spokesperson for University Medical Center said the outage did not affect clinical operations at the county-owned hospital.

 

— The Sun’s Haajrah Gilani contributed to this story.

 

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