CrowdStrike outage sparks global chaos with airline, bank and other disruptions

A wave of IT outages swept across the globe Friday morning, sending airports, airlines, banks and other institutions into a screeching halt as some Microsoft-based computers ceased to work.

CrowdStrike -- an American cybersecurity technology firm that provides cloud workload protection, threat intelligence and cyberattack response services -- said the outage, which sparked chaos for many, was not a cyberattack. Instead, there was an issue with software and a fix had been deployed.

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," said Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz on social media Friday morning. "We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

American Airlines, United and Delta asked the FAA for global ground stop on all flights, according to an alert from the FAA on Friday morning and, as of 6:25 a.m. ET, at least 540 flights in the U.S. have been cancelled.

“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," the statement read.

The FAA told air traffic controllers to tell airborne pilots that airlines are currently experiencing communication issues.

"No one here knows anything, the gate agents said we all know as much as they do," an airline passenger told ABC News, saying his flight from SeaTac Airport in Washington was delayed for two hours on the tarmac before passengers were deplaned. "I feel awful for the employees and those that have a sick loved one they need to get to or funerals, thankfully that's not us."

Meanwhile, flights that were in the air already were allowed to continue on, but no American, United or Delta flights had been taking off during the outage.

"We’re aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with CrowdStrike to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," American Airlines said in a statement obtained by ABC News.

"A third party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United," United Airlines said in a statement on Friday morning. "While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations."

Global IT outages have also been reported in many countries across the world including Berlin Airport in Germany, the London Stock Exchange, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom.

"We're investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services," Microsoft said in a statement released on social media Friday morning.

Meanwhile, a source told ABC News that some computers has been affected at Department of Justice in the outage, though there was no indication that it was affecting law enforcement activities in the field. The DOJ alerted users that they are among the businesses and government users worldwide affected and that the DOJ Office of the Chief Information Officer has actively been troubleshooting possible workarounds with Component CIOs and technical teams.

Some hospitals around the country have also been affected in the IT outage.

Mass General Brigham in Boston, Massachusetts, cancelled all elective surgeries on Friday and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Avondale, Ohio, also reported some disruptions.

The situation is currently ongoing

ABC News' Joe Simonetti, Zunaira Zaki, Ahmad Hemingway and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.