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The aviation sector has been thrown into turmoil as a Microsoft outage has hit computer systems worldwide.
Passengers have been unable to check in at Sydney and Perth Airports, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. FlightRadar24 tracking data appeared to show planes grounded in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
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“A global technical outage has impacted some airline operations and terminal services,” said a spokesperson for Sydney Airport.
“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.”
Melbourne Airport on social media also announced that check-in for “some airlines” has been impacted.
“Passengers flying with these airlines this afternoon are advised to allow a little extra time to check-in. Please check with your airline for flight updates,” the airport said.
Brisbane Airport also confirmed that check-in and some terminal services have been affected.
“Flights are continuing to operate. We will keep you up to date with any further impacts and if you’re travelling, stay alert for messages from your airline,” the airport said on social media.
The issue is believed to stem from a problem at CrowdStrike, a cyber security provider based in the US, specifically with its “Falcon sensor”.
“Symptoms include hosts experiencing a bugcheck\blue screen error related to the Falcon sensor. Our engineering teams are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket,” the company said in a statement.
At this stage, the issue is not believed to be a cyber attack, according to national cyber security coordinator Michelle McGuinness.
“I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon,” she said.
“Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.
“There is no information to suggest it is a cyber security incident. We continue to engage across key stakeholders.”
