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On a seemingly normal Friday morning, the skies over India turned turbulent—not due to weather, but due to a global IT outage that left thousands of passengers stranded. A widespread failure of Microsoft’s systems caused a ripple effect, crippling airport operations across the country.

Over 200 Flights Cancelled, Numerous Delayed

The disruption began at 10:40 am, causing immediate and extensive chaos. IndiGo, one of India's largest airlines, was forced to cancel around 200 flights. However, the number of delayed flights across various airlines couldn't be precisely quantified. According to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, 56 flights were cancelled out of 3,652 scheduled from Indian destinations, excluding inbound flights to India.

Manual Operations: A Slow and Painful Process

With critical services such as bookings, check-ins, and boarding moved to manual operations, passengers experienced significant delays. Long queues snaked through airports as staff processed each ticket manually, taking 30-40 minutes per passenger. This inefficiency led to frustration and confusion, especially for those traveling due to emergencies. The web check-in feature was also temporarily unavailable, exacerbating the chaos.

“We have instructed all airlines and airport authorities to keep passengers informed about their flight status and provide necessary assistance,” said Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu. Despite these efforts, the situation remained dire, especially at high-density airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

Global Impact on Indian Airports

The outage affected airlines using the Navitaire Departure Control System (DCS), a critical component for operations. In Bengaluru, both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 faced disruptions, impacting airlines such as IndiGo, Akasa, SpiceJet, and Air India Express. The repercussions were felt nationwide, highlighting the vulnerability of relying on global IT systems for local operations.

Government and IT Ministry Response

Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed that the IT ministry is in touch with Microsoft to resolve the issue. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) network remained unaffected, and the reason for the outage was identified with updates being released to fix the problem.

CERT-In, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, issued an advisory rating the severity of the situation as “critical.” The advisory noted that Windows hosts related to the CrowdStrike agent 'Falcon Sensor' experienced crashes due to a recent update, causing the infamous 'Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)'.

As airports and airlines scramble to return to normalcy, this incident serves as a stark reminder of our heavy dependence on technology and the cascading effects of its failures. Passengers are advised to stay informed about their flight statuses and reach out for assistance as necessary.

The aviation industry, alongside technology providers, must collaborate to build more resilient systems to prevent such widespread disruptions in the future. In the meantime, patience and understanding from passengers and efficient communication from airlines will be crucial in navigating through this turbulence.