Flights grounded across the US during tech outage

Major airlines have grounded flights across the US, citing communication issues caused by a global IT outage.

The outage - which has also affected banks and emergency services around the world - has been caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. Delta Airlines, which is the world's second biggest carrier by passenger numbers, said all of its flights were paused. American Airlines grounded its flights earlier, but says it has now resumed service.

Crowdstrike has apologised and released a statement saying that the issue “has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed”. It is not currently known when the issue will be resolved. Around the world, thousands of travellers have been affected. US tourist Stephanie Thompson was unable to board her flight back to Dallas following a holiday in the UK.

"We couldn't get an answer from anybody,” she said, speaking from Edinburgh Airport. “I was on hold with American (Airlines) for about an hour and 10 minutes before I finally hung up. "We just paid $6,800 (£5,260) for a one-way trip home, hopefully leaving tonight. I didn't know what else to do. I just wanted something to get us home."