Canadian air traffic, hospitals and border disrupted during global technology outage

A global technology outage caused flight cancellations, hospitalizations and congestion at border crossings in Canada on Friday, with reported problems persisting hours after problems with Microsoft services were reportedly resolved.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the issue suspected to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack. The problem affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued after the tech company said it would gradually fix the problem.

Both Toronto Pearson International Airport and Montréal–Trudeau International Airport said the outage could lead to flight delays and cancellations.

Porter Airlines said flights were canceled until 12 p.m. ET due to the outage.

Air Canada, meanwhile, said there would be no major impact on flight operations, but added that it was closely monitoring the situation.

University Health Network, one of Canada’s largest hospital networks, said some of its systems were affected by the outage. In a social media post, it said clinical activity would continue as planned, but some patients may experience delays.

Windsor police reported long delays at the Canada-US border crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador warned “users of its digital platforms” of possible service interruptions. The province’s health authority, NL Health Services, said its IT services were also affected, including the main information system for managing patient care and financial information.

Some companies report that their operations were not affected by the technical failure.

Rogers Communications Inc. says there was no disruption to its telephone and internet networks or to its media operations. Air Canada says there is no major disruption to operations but is closely monitoring the situation.

Microsoft 365 posted on social media platform X that the company is “working to redirect affected traffic to alternative systems to mitigate the impact” and that it is “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

CrowdStrike said in an emailed statement to the Associated Press that the company is “actively working with customers affected by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”