A global Microsoft outage significantly affected many services, from flights to banking, for several hours early on Friday.
Airlines and airports across the United States, Europe, Australia and India reported problems, with some flights canceled in cities like Chicago. Retailers, banks, railways and hospitals around the world were also affected in what was believed to be an unprecedented Internet outage.
The affected services and their locations are:
What’s going on in Chicago?
Major airlines suspend flights, some resume
The FAA announced that United, American, Delta and Allegiant airlines have suspended flights across the US.
In the Chicago area, power outages are affecting several flights at O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport.
Delta Air Lines reported that it was “suspending all Delta flights while it addresses a vendor technology issue.”
American Airlines said it was “aware of the technical issue” that was affecting multiple airlines.
United Airlines said the outage was “impacting computer systems globally.”
“All aircraft are remaining at their departure airports while we work to restore our systems. Flights already in the air are continuing to their destinations,” the airline said in a statement.
As of 5:30 a.m., some airlines were starting to see flights resume, but delays continued.
Midway Airport hoped these issues would lead to longer lines and wait times.
Emergency Services
In addition to flights, Illinois State Police reported that its police department experienced technical issues during the outage, but 911 services continued to function.
Transportation facilities
Railroads and transport systems around the world were affected.
In Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority said it had not seen any impacts to service due to the outage, but had seen some issues with the Ventra app.
“Buses and rail services are currently operating and are unaffected by the Microsoft outage. Ventra experienced an outage overnight affecting customers relying on added value via the mobile app and later from vending machines, but both cases have been resolved and are operating as normal. We will continue to monitor the system for any changes,” it said.
Metra also said it was experiencing service issues with its Ventra app. The railroad agency also said “communications issues” caused by the outage caused delays on some lines.
Clinics and Hospitals
The University of Chicago Medical Center said a power outage had knocked out its computer systems and servers.
“These connections are currently being restored and our most critical clinical and operational systems are now back online. We expect restoration to continue over the next few hours,” the health system said in the alert.
Illinois and Indiana DMV
Illinois DMVs were also affected by the outage, and Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias urged people to call before visiting.
Giannoulias said the outages would “affect hours and services, including road testing.”
Indiana’s Department of Transportation also said it was affected.
“We are currently unable to process your transaction,” officials wrote to X.
what happened?
“Users may lose access to various Microsoft 365 apps and services,” according to a Microsoft webpage that tracks the status of the company’s services. The issue affects apps such as Microsoft Fabric, Teams, Purview, Defender, SharePoint and OneNote, according to the tracker.
The US tech giant said late on Thursday that the outage could cause customers to experience issues across several services.
Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working to reroute affected traffic to alternate systems to more quickly mitigate the impact” and that it was “seeing positive trends in service availability.”
Microsoft said on Friday that most of its services had been restored, according to CNBC, but the company said some customers may still be experiencing issues.
The CEO of the cybersecurity firm at the center of the global outage said they were working to fix the flaw sent in a Windows update.
“This is not a security incident or cyber attack,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social platform X. “The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix is being deployed.”
Kurtz said the flaw was in a “single content update for Windows hosts.” Mac and Linux hosts were not affected.
The company directed customers to its support portal for updates.
What in the world is going on?
British airlines, trains and television stations are being disrupted by computer problems, including low-cost airline Ryanair, train operators TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink, and broadcaster Sky News.
Widespread problems were reported at Australian airports, with online check-in services and self-service booths unavailable, causing long queues and leaving some passengers stranded. In Melbourne, passengers waited for more than an hour to check in.
“We are currently experiencing disruption across our network due to a global third-party IT outage which is outside our control,” Ryanair said in a statement, adding: “We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their scheduled departure.”
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport said on its website that the outage was having a “major impact on flights” to and from the busy European hub. The outage came on one of the airport’s busiest days of the year, marking the start of many people’s summer holidays.
In Germany, Berlin airport announced on Friday morning that “technical issues will cause delays to check-in.” According to German news agency dpa, the airport said flights had been suspended until 10 a.m. (8 a.m. GMT) but did not provide further details.
At Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, some flights to the US were delayed but others were unaffected.
Australian outages reported on the site included banks such as NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo, airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as internet and phone providers such as Telstra.
Australian news organisations, including the ABC and Sky News, reported television and radio broadcasts were cut off and Windows-based computers suddenly shut down, with some news anchors broadcasting live online in darkened offices in front of computers that displayed a “blue screen of death”.
Payment system outages meant shoppers were unable to make payments at some supermarkets and stores.
New Zealand banks ASB and Kiwibank have announced service outages.
Organizers of the Paris Olympics said the power outage had delayed the arrival of some Olympic athletes and the delivery of uniforms and certificates.
Organisers said in a statement that ticket sales and the torch relay would not be affected. “Teams are fully mobilised to ensure operations continue at an optimal level,” they said.
