FRANTIC travelers shelled out thousands of dollars to secure flights home after a major technology outage brought airlines to a standstill.
Despite the worldwide disruption, some North American tourists managed to get a ride home through a bizarrely unaffected airport.
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Some travelers revealed they paid almost $6,800 to secure a flight from Edinburgh airport in Scotland.
The global disruption has brought many travelers’ plans to a screeching halt.
Officials in Edinburgh have revealed that those traveling should expect security waits of “around an hour”.
Many flights were delayed, while others were canceled completely, leaving travelers in limbo.
A US resident traveling abroad for Wimbledon and the Open Championship has revealed she was due to return to Texas but was forced to make other plans when the disruption occurred.
” [The flight] We were due to leave at 9.25am and change at Heathrow at 11am and were due to arrive in Dallas later today,” Stephanie Thompson told The Irish News.
“We couldn’t get a response from anyone. British Airways kept hanging up saying we have too many calls at the moment. I was on hold with American (Airlines) for about an hour and 10 minutes before they finally hung up.”
Thompson said she was forced to spend $6,800 on a new flight from Edinburgh.
“We just paid $6,800 for a one-way trip home, hopefully leaving tonight. I didn’t know what else to do. I just wanted something to take us home.
According to the agency, another passenger also cried as she feared missing her flight to meet her father.
“It was chaos. People were confused as they were sent outside to the trams and the parking lot, told (it was a) security issue.” said the teenager’s mother.
“Panic is setting in for those, including my 16-year-old daughter, who travel alone to visit her father via Dublin to Dulles, Washington DC, in case they miss their flight.”
The panicked mother told the outlet that her daughter called her “in tears” about the situation.
“Fortunately, she made her first flight. Who knows about other people traveling with babies, elderly people and people who don’t speak English.”
Outage could take ‘weeks’ to resolve
Technology experts told The US Sun that although an official fix has been released for Microsoft’s outage, issues related to the blackout will continue to linger.
Al Lakhani, CEO of security firm IDEE, said the problems could persist for weeks.
“The consequences of incidents like these can be extensive and prolonged,” Lakhani said.
“In terms of restoring all affected computers to full operation, recovery can take hours, days or even weeks.
“This is because this is a supply chain attack. These are particularly harmful because a single compromised software update can impact thousands of organizations around the world.
“Leading to serious consequences, including service disruptions, intellectual property theft, and threats to national security.”
Another security expert, Adam Pilton, told The US Sun that it will take days for larger companies to recover.
“Depending on the size of the organization will determine the recovery time,” said Adam, senior cybersecurity specialist at Cybersmart, speaking to The US Sun.
“CrowdStrike has released a fix and provided guidance that is working for many users.
“For smaller organizations, this will take hours; for larger organizations, this can take days to resolve.”
Martin Jartelius, chief security officer at Outpost24, told The US Sun that some affected computers may need to be repaired manually.
“For those affected, if their systems didn’t receive the wrong update, that’s a positive,” Jartelius said.
“If they got the update, some seem to be able to start working and will fix themselves.
“Others will currently have a workaround to get the good update and will have some practical support including booting into safe mode and removing some files, hopefully doing this quickly for any system that needs high availability.
“But expect the cleanup in IT departments to potentially extend throughout the year. summer vacation.
“So where it really matters, this shouldn’t be too difficult to fix, but it will cost time and effort.”
The outage came after serious problems at Microsoft sent major companies, newsrooms and television networks into chaos.
Cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike says it has identified the issue behind the global outage as a failed antiviral update.
The company is allegedly used by Microsoft to handle various updates to its systems.
Since the accident, many have taken to social media to show how the outage has affected them.
User X posted a photo of how their airport was handling the outage.
“The Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage has taken down most airports in India. I received my first handwritten boarding pass today,” one user wrote.
Another user posted a photo of the huge security queue outside Edinburgh Airport.
“Insane talks for broken security @ #Edinburgh airport,” they said in a post.
An ABC affiliate reporter WSB-TV also posted a video showing several grounded planes.
#LATEST NEWS 7:13 am @Delta the gates are full here @ATLairport as the airline “paused its global flight schedule” this morning,” the reporter he wrote in X.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
