A major IT outage affecting Microsoft Windows systems caused global disruptions to travel, financial networks and healthcare facilities Friday. Photo by Tolga Bozoglu/EPA-EFE
July 19 (UPI) — A major IT glitch affecting cloud computing and systems running Microsoft’s Windows OS around the world Friday grounded flights and disrupted train services, logistics, hospitals, banks and stock exchanges, took out emergency call centers and forced TV networks off-air.
American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines flights grounded all flights globally, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said and Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair, reported it had been badly hit by a “third-party IT outage entirely out of our control,” while long lines formed at airports in Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Manchester and all four London airports.
Passengers arriving at airport departures were met with blank screens on displays where real-time flight information is displayed.
Germany’s Lufthansa and Eurowings and SAS, the flag carriers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, reported issues with their booking or online check-in systems while the Netherlands’ KLM said it had “largely suspended operations” as flight handling had become “impossible.”
Zurich airport said flights were not permitted to land.
In Asia, Delhi airport was forced to switch to manual check-in and use white-boards to post flight information while Tokyo’s Narita Airport reported Qantas and at least four regional carriers were experiencing systems issues.
The outages appeared to be caused by a CrowdStrike cybersecurity software update with at least one airline — United — saying it was working with the Texas-based provider to fix a “technical issue that is impacting multiple carriers.”
“A third-party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United,” the Chicago-based carrier told the BBC.
“While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations.”
Crowdstrike, which confirmed the issue was the result of a defect in a content update for Windows hosts for which it had issued a fix, stressed it was not a security incident or cyberattack but warned its customers against fake sites or fraudsters purporting to represent the firm.
“We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” said CEO George Kurtz.
“We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with Crowdstrike representatives through official channels.
Microsoft said it was “aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform.”
It said it was working to mitigate the issues in a series of updates posted on X overnight in which it said it was also “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate, healthy, systems to alleviate the impact in a more expedient fashion.”
In an update Friday morning Microsoft said the underlying causes have been fixed but “residual impact” continued to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Emergency 911 services were hit in several U.S. states, including Alaska where a major call center outage forced state police to provide alternate emergency numbers.
“Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centers are not working correctly across the State of Alaska. If you have an emergency and 911 is not working in your area, you can call the following phone numbers directly,” read a post on the state troopers’ official Facebook account.
In Britain, 15 train companies were affected and Sky TV and the BBC also both hit, with Sky off the air for several hours, the London Stock Exchange’s regulatory/research announcements service was knocked out while National Health Service primary care was badly hit.
NHS England said the outage was causing disruptions at the majority of the country’s 6,300 doctors’ offices but that it was not aware of any known impact on 999 emergency services.
In Australia, Sydney Airport and Melbourne Airport reported issues and Virgin Australia was forced to cancel flights.
In meeting of emergency agencies was underway in Canberra attended by representatives of major grocery and retail chains, major telcos and internet providers, the banking and finance sector, airlines, utilities, transport and logistics providers, and state and territory administrations.
