Previously, it was reported that the American airline Southwest Airlines avoided a Crowdstrike outage due to Windows 3.1. According to the source of the report, "it was trolling" — such data does not actually exist.
One of the most viral messages about Crowdstrike was the claim that Southwest Airlines avoided problems by using outdated operating systems. This was reported by numerous media outlets in the US and around the world. In reality, this information is incorrect — while Southwest Airlines does use some outdated software, there is no evidence of them using Windows 3.1.
An investigation by OS News found that the source of the claims was a viral tweet stating that Southwest still runs Windows 3.1. The author later clarified that it was a joke.
To be clear, I was trolling last night, but it turned out to be true. Some Southwest systems apparently do run Windows 3.1. lol.https://t.co/qWPei3ID1Gpic.twitter.com/NmcXeW6qPl
— Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) July 19, 2024
“To clarify, I was trolling last night, but it turned out to be true. Some Southwest systems apparently run Windows 3.1. lol.”
The author references a 2023 article that compares Southwest's internal software to Windows 3.1, implying that it is almost equally outdated. However, it does not state that Southwest actually still uses Windows 3.1.
A December 2022 article by The Dallas Morning News discusses how Southwest Airlines' systems began to "melt down" during the Christmas holidays. This article and other materials on the subject blame outdated software used by the airline — SkySolver and Crew Web Access. The article notes that these programs appear as if they were developed for Windows 95. Following this publication, rumors spread that Southwest was using Windows 95, leading to viral tweets and media outlets perpetuating the story.
However, there is currently no evidence that Southwest uses Windows 3.1. Yes, their flight scheduling and employee management software is quite old and has been in use since around 2007. Nevertheless, it appears that Southwest managed to evade the Crowdstrike outage not because of Windows 3.1. Why is that? ABC News reports that the company simply does not use Crowdstrike software.
On Friday, July 19, during these extraordinary events, people believed even more incredible things. For instance, the meme that the large sphere in Las Vegas displayed a Windows blue screen, or even crashed during Crowdstrike. This, in fact, did not occur.
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