Passengers travelling from Nigeria to other parts of the world on Friday were stranded as several foreign airlines delayed and cancelled flights as a result of a global technology outage caused by a faulty software update.

At the heart of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to thousands of companies worldwide.

Delta Airlines, the largest U.S carrier delayed its Lagos-Atlanta flight, pushing the departure time from 12noon to 3pm on Friday.

The affected passengers were accommodated in hotels while some had to return home.

In a statement by the airline, it stated that “All Delta flights are paused as we work through a vendor technology issue.”

The airline stated that any customers whose flights are impacted will be notified by Delta via the Fly Delta app and text message.

“Customers should use the Fly Delta app for updates. We apologize for the inconvenience as our teams work through this issue,” the airline stated.

On Friday United Airlines cancelled its Lagos-Washington flight, leaving its Nigeria passengers stranded.

Air France’s Paris-Lagos flight, initially scheduled to arrive at 9:10 pm, was rescheduled to 12:35 am on Saturday.

The outbound Lagos-Paris operations which was set for 11 pm, was also delayed.

KLM’s Amsterdam-Lagos flight, expected at 8:05 pm on Friday, was delayed until 10:35 pm.

Major U.S. airlines ordered ground stops on Friday citing communications issues, while other carriers, media companies, banks and telecoms firms around the world also reported system outages were disrupting their operations.

Health care providers across the U.S. and in Canada and England had their services disrupted by the global internet outage, though some systems saw little or no effect. (BusinessDay)

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