Flights resume after global IT crash wreaks havoc

NEW YORK

Planes were gradually taking off again on July 20 after global airlines, banks and media were thrown into turmoil by one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus programme.

Passenger crowds had swelled at airports on July 19 as dozens of flights were cancelled after an update to a programme operating on Microsoft Windows crashed systems worldwide.

By July 20, officials said the situation had returned virtually to normal in airports across Germany and France, as Paris prepared to welcome millions for the Olympic Games starting on Friday.

Multiple U.S. airlines and airports across Asia said they had resumed operations, with check-in services restored in Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, and mostly back to normal in India, Indonesia and at Singapore's Changi Airport.

Microsoft estimated on July 20 that 8.5 million Windows devices were affected in the global IT crash, adding that the number amounted to less than one percent of all Windows machines.

"While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services", it said.

In a blog post, CrowdStrike said it had released an update on July 18 night that had caused a system crash and the infamous "blue screen of death" fatal error message.

CrowdStrike said it had rolled out a fix for the problem, and the company's boss, George Kurtz, told U.S. news channel CNBC he wanted to "personally apologise to every organisation, every group and every person who has been impacted."

The company also said it could take a few days for things to fully get back to normal.