LAX says air traffic is picking back up after a worldwide technology outage grounded several airlines around the world.
A U.S. cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, claims they were making a software upgrade that inadvertently included a bug, which triggered the outage overnight.
That prompted American Airlines, Delta, and United to ask the Federal Aviation Administration for a global ground stop on all its flights.
LAX spokesperson Doug Webster said the airport started to see impacts of the technical glitches Thursday night around 11 p.m. The airport canceled 45 flights and delayed around 63 departures as of Friday morning.
A total of 171 delays were reported for both arrivals and departures.
The outage did not impact air traffic control, according to Webster, but it made a few airline ground operations unavailable.
“Some of the flight displays were unavailable, some of the check-in systems became unavailable,” Webster told KCRW, “which really made it difficult for the airlines to be able to go and process passengers in an efficient manner.”
By Friday morning, some of the airlines’ operational systems were back online, and others were slowly being revived.
Departing flights from the Hollywood Burbank Airport and the Long Beach Airport were also temporarily grounded. Flights at John Wayne Airport in Orange County saw sporadic cancellations and delays Friday.
Shipments at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were also reportedly disrupted and delayed.
Webster recommended that anyone heading to LAX today check in with their airline and look over the flight status online before leaving their homes, and to give themselves extra time to check bags and go through security.
