A major outage on Friday caused widespread disruptions to global computer systems, grounding flights in the United States, disrupting television broadcasts in the UK, and impacting telecommunications in Australia.
In the United States, major airlines including Delta, United, and American Airlines grounded all flights due to a communication issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a "technical problem," with a spokeswoman stating that delays to check-in and flight cancellations until 10:00 am (0800 GMT) were expected, though she could not specify when operations would resume.
All airports in Spain were experiencing disruptions due to an IT outage that affected several companies worldwide, according to the airport operator Aena.
Hong Kong's airport also reported that some airlines were affected, with the authority linking the disruption to a Microsoft outage.
The UK's biggest rail operator warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.
A Sydney Airport spokesman said, "Flights are currently arriving and departing, however there may be some delays throughout the evening. We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers."
Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator attributed the "large-scale technical outage" to an issue with a "third-party software platform," noting that there was no evidence to suggest hacker involvement.
Sky News in the UK reported that the glitch had ended its morning news broadcasts, while Australian broadcaster ABC similarly reported a major "outage." In Australia, some self-checkout terminals at one of the largest supermarket chains were rendered useless, displaying blue error messages. New Zealand media reported issues with banks and computer systems inside the country's parliament.
