CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage: Airline systems across Indian airports working normally, says govt

Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said on Saturday that airline systems across Indian airports have "started working normally" since 3 AM. He said in a statement that flight operations are going smoothly now. "There is a backlog because of disruptions yesterday and it is getting cleared gradually," the minister said.

"By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved. We are constantly monitoring the operations at our airports and also with the airlines ensuring travel readjustments and refunds are taken care of. We thank you for your patience," the minister said in the statement on Saturday.

CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage

Hundreds of flights were affected on Friday after a massive IT outage hampered operations globally. The disruption linked to a severe outage impacting Microsoft Windows systems. The widespread issue was caused by the latest update of the CrowdStrike agent, Falcon Sensor.

This update led to system crashes and the "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD), affecting numerous Windows hosts equipped with the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor. Microsoft also acknowledged the outage affecting its online services globally, including in India.

IndiGo cancelled over 200 flights on July 19 and 20. Meanwhile, the Delhi airport posted on Friday, "Due to the global IT issue, some of the services at the Delhi Airport were temporarily impacted. We are closely working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our flyers."

Impact on stock exchanges

Besides, the stock market exchanges released a joint statement on Saturday of all exchanges on the global outrage of Microsoft systems. The Indian exchanges stated that all stock market exchanges in India were not much affected by the outrage and functioned without any impact.

"On July 19, 2024, there was a global outage of Microsoft Systems. This outage has been reported to have caused disruptions across various sectors globally. In India, all Exchanges and Clearing Corporations functioned without any impact" said a joint statement by Indian stock exchanges.

The statement also highlighted that only 11 trading members reported the disruptions in operation due to the outrage, which was either resolved or being resolved, and there was no major impact on clearing activities in the Indian securities market.

Govt's response

Union Minister for Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, had then assured the public that the government was in close contact with Microsoft to address the issue.

"MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. The NIC network is not affected," the minister stated on Friday.