Travelers move through the terminal near a Delta Airlines desk at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Atlanta.

Travelers move through the terminal near a Delta Airlines desk at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Atlanta.

Credit: AP Photo/Mike Stewart

Friday’s massive IT glitch linked to a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike on Microsoft cloud computing services continued to cause disruptions over the weekend.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport overnight Friday into Saturday as hundreds of flights were canceled. As of Sunday morning, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines had canceled more than 400 flights worldwide, according to FlightAware.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, United has canceled more than 200 flights as of Sunday morning.

WSB-TV reported that hotels were full and rental cars all sold out stranding even more passengers inside the terminal. Some passengers complained that airlines weren’t paying for hotels or food during the crisis. 

The outage took a toll on local businesses, government offices, and public services on Friday as well.

MARTA reported its website, real-time service information, Breeze Mobile app, and online fare purchases were operating normally again on Saturday afternoon after Friday’s outage.

Fulton County reported that vehicle tags were unable to be processed and there were issues with property tax payments. while Georgia Power’s website was unable to process payments. DeKalb County’s 911 system was also temporarily affected.

CrowdStrike confirmed the outage stemmed from a defect in a single content update for Windows hosts. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” the company stated. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Microsoft reported fixing problems with its Azure Service and Microsoft 365 apps, though some services still experienced residual impact.

This is an ongoing story. Check back for updates. 

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Rough Draft Atlanta.

Tags: Georgia  Atlanta  IT  glitch  cybersecurity  Microsoft  Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport  flights  airline cancellations  Delta Air Lines