'Major Whoopsie': GA Flights Delayed, State Systems Down Due To Outage

GEORGIA — Around noon, Atlanta airport travelers were still experiencing hours-long flight delays and some agencies at the local and state levels were scrambling after a global outage that affected Microsoft users.

The outage at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike had far ranging impacts across the world Friday morning, which has struck airlines, banks and other offices. A software update is believed to be responsible for the mass disruption, according to national reports.

The Federal Aviation Agency, which said it is monitoring systems, reported several ground stops across the U.S.

In Georgia, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport experienced inbound flight delays of about 6 hours and 14 minutes as of 12:30 p.m. Friday. Departures leaving the Atlanta airport were pushed back by 1 hour and 1 minute.

Airborne aircraft arrivals were delayed by 33 minutes and decreasing.

At an early noon update, Hartsfield said though its systems were not directly affected by the outage, some of its airlines were struck.

Atlanta-based travel company Delta Air Lines initially paused all flights around 4 a.m. Friday, citing a "vendor technology issue;" then, the airlines temporarily halted global flights.

At an update around 7:45 a.m., Delta resumed some departures. Travel waivers to departing customers had been issued, permitting people to manage their own travel adjustments, Delta said.

"Delta has resumed some flight departures after a vendor technology issue impacted several airlines and businesses around the world. That issue necessitated a pause in Delta’s global flight schedule this morning while it was addressed. Additional delays and cancelations are expected Friday," the airlines said.

The computer systems at United Airlines were also hit by the outage. The airlines said some flights were continued, and while the airlines was working to gain full system restoration, United said some customers may have delays.

The outage trickled across the state, affecting the Georgia Department of Revenue, the Georgia Department of Human Services and the Georgia Department of Driver Services. Metro Atlanta transit system, MARTA, was also impacted.

The revenue department reported downed drives and Georgia Tax Center applications, while the DDS reported all of its services were down.

While MARTA buses remained running, the transit system said access to its website, its Breeze card site and real-time service information were still not available around noon.

The DHS did not specifically identify the nature of the outage's impact on the agency but noted its systems were affected.

Over in Roswell, the city's email and phone systems were not working though patrol services and 911 operations remained unaffected, city officials and police said.

"As many of you are already aware, we are globally experiencing what IT experts refer to as a 'major whoopsie.' We want to assure you that 911 and police patrol services are uninterrupted, and we are always ready if you need us, Roswell," police tweeted.

Due to the global Microsoft outage, the City of Roswell's e-mail and phone systems are down. The City's 911 Center is operational. Roswell's IT Dept. is working to fix the issue, but we may take most of today to restore services. We will provide updates as we receive them. pic.twitter.com/JuCyJeJPxC
— Roswell, Georgia (@CityofRoswellGA) July" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/CityofRosw... 19, 2024

In Fulton County, tags were unable to be processed and property tax payments and online searches were down at the motor vehicle tag offices, county officials reported.

Due to the outage spreading to the Fulton County Board of Health, requests for the county's Women, Infant and Children program could not be processed.

This comes after county officials reported a majority of its services were being offered and were "running smoothly," including 911 and public safety operations. County phones and emails were working with all facilities remaining open, officials said in update around noon.

The outage did not touch all agencies in Georgia. The Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency remained fully operational as of around 7:30 a.m.