Computer - Global IT disruption - individual problems in Rhineland-Palatinate
A global IT disruption has caused issues in Rheinland-Pfalz in some areas. At the Hunsruck-Airport Hahn, there were delays in the afternoon. Business manager Rüdiger Franke confirmed that arriving planes were delayed and therefore took off later. "The first flights have already been affected." It is recommended to check the status of the flight beforehand on the website.
Problems at Hahn Airport and Tegut
The systems of the airport itself are currently not affected by the disruption, but those of various airlines such as Ryanair, Wizzair and FlyOne at the check-in counters are, according to Franke. "The airlines have reacted quickly, and check-in processes at Hahn Airport are being done manually." However, there were no known problems at Saarbrücken Airport until the afternoon.
The grocery store Tegut was also affected by the technical disruption. In many, but not all, branches, the cash register systems no longer functioned, according to a spokesperson. The problems emerged in the morning during the start-up of the cash registers. Tegut reportedly has over 300 markets in Hesse, Bavaria, Thuringia, as well as in Göttingen, Mainz, Stuttgart and Munich**. The homepage informed Tegut about already reopened markets - Mainz was not among them until the afternoon.
Initially, problems in larger hospitals
Overall, the problems in Rheinland-Pfalz seemed to be contained. "We currently see no effects on BASF," a spokeswoman said. And from the north, it was reported: "There are no restrictions at the Bundeswehr Central Hospital Koblenz due to the mentioned computer problem." Also, there were no reported disruptions at the Unimedizin Mainz, the Westpfalz Clinic, and the Klinikum Ludwigshafen initially.
The Landesverwaltung had no reports of failures at first. "We are closely monitoring the situation," said the spokeswoman of the Digitalization Ministry, Esther Höfler.
The computer problems caused widespread disruptions worldwide. In Germany, for example, the Berlin airport had to temporarily halt operations at the start of the holidays. Media reports also indicated that the operations of banks and hospitals were disrupted in other countries.
Possible error corrected
According to the California-based company Crowdstrike, the cause was an update. In the afternoon, the IT security firm announced that it had corrected the error. Company CEO George Kurtz wrote on the X platform online that the error had occurred in an update to the Crowdstrike software for Windows-computers. The problem had been identified and corrected. It was not a cyberattack or a security incident.
- Rüdiger Franke mentioned that delays at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport impacted not only Air traffic but also affected the departure times of Ryanair, Wizz Air, and FlyOne flights.
- The disruption also affected retail businesses, like Tegut, with manual check-ins being implemented at Ryanair and Wizz Air check-in counters at Hahn Airport.
- The cash register systems in several Tegut branches across Hesse, Bavaria, Thuringia, and cities like Mainz, Stuttgart, and Munich were impacted, causing temporary closures.
- In the initial stages, larger hospitals in Rheinland-Pfalz, such as the Unimedizin Mainz, Westpfalz Clinic, and Klinikum Ludwigshafen, reported no disruptions, but the situation was continuously monitored.
- Retail and transportation disruptions due to computer problems were not limited to Germany; media reported issues with bank operations and hospitals in other countries as well.
- The California-based company Crowdstrike, after thorough investigation, identified an update in their software for Windows-computers as the source of the issue, claiming that it had been corrected and assuring no cyberattack or security incident was involved.
