GA, Private Aviation Dodge Worst of Cyber Outage Impact

Many American pilots woke up to the news that a faulty software update from CrowdStrike, a cyber security technology used by Microsoft Windows, had triggered a vast cyber outage that disrupted air travel, banking, and media outlets across the world.

Early Friday morning in the U.S., major carriers, including United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines canceled more than 1,000 flights, or 4.2 percent of their planned schedules, according to AirlineGeeks.com.

As the morning wore on FlightAware's MiseryMap reported multiple airports with significant delays and flight cancellations, most notably in Washington, D.C, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Boston, Denver, Houston, and Miami.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz was quick to issue a public statement on X, explaining that the issue was not a security incident or cyberattack, and that a fix had been deployed. Kurtz apologized for the inconvenience.

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," Kurtz said.

For GA pilots en route to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (July 22-28), the outage appears to be a nonevent. As long as the internet remains in operation and they have connectivity, flight planning apps such as ForeFlight and SkyVector remain in use.

"ForeFlight's systems have not been impacted by a software outage affecting the aviation industry, and our support team is not aware of data or filing issues with third-party providers,” ForeFlight said in a statement.

By midday Friday, a steady stream of aircraft were lined up on approach for Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH) in Oshkosh, according to FlightAware.

Air traffic control operations were also not affected by the outage.

"Currently, FAA operations are not impacted by the global IT issue,” the FAA said in a statement. “We continue to monitor the situation closely."

Private aviation operations also initially were not adversely affected, according to reports.

"Our operations have not been impacted by the issue," a Wheels Up spokesperson told Private Jet Card Comparisons.