After a week of sun and swimming in the Spanish resort of La Pineda, Embla Lachey and her boyfriend Torben von Hett were ready to head home. Early Friday morning, they flew to Barcelona airport to catch their flight back to Norway.

They did not know what chaos awaited them.

Many airlines have problems.

Welcomed by gigakø

The couple were shocked when they arrived at the airport. The lines were huge and there were crowds of frustrated passengers waiting desperately to check in.

“It was absolutely ridiculous. All the systems seemed to be down. Everything had to be recorded manually. Baggage tags and boarding passes were handwritten,” Lash says.

At the airport, staff frantically tried to help the many waiting passengers. It would be four long hours before the Norwegian couple made it through check-in. Unfortunately, the plane had long since departed without them.

“It was absolutely crazy chaos,” Lash says. “Families with children are probably the hardest hit.”

horrifying

Lash says she found the breakdown of order that caused the flight to be terrifying.

– What! Is the system that weak? I thought it was completely ridiculous. This is the stuff of conspiracy theories.

The issue was caused by an update from computer security firm Crowdstrike, which affected computers running Microsoft Windows. The data problem hit airports, banks, and hospitals in a number of locations around the world.

On Friday afternoon, Crowdstrike announced that the issue had been resolved.

“It feels very unsafe that something like this could happen,” she says. “Imagine if the disease had spread to planes that were already in the air.”

Stranded at the airport

Fortunately, it also worked out for the Norwegian couple. But they had to be patient. They got new tickets for the flight at 21:00, and were stranded for 13 hours at the Spanish airport.

– Now people here seem a bit indifferent and tired of waiting, but we've come to terms with the situation. We're taking it as it is and enjoying the café as long as we can.