A Worldwide Microsoft Outage Halts Flights, Banks, Media, and More

In a significant technological crisis, a global Microsoft outage early Friday morning brought various sectors, including flights, banks, media outlets, and companies, to a standstill. The outage, linked to a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, left travelers stranded at major airports like JFK and LaGuardia and disrupted operations worldwide.

It's confirmed !! Crowdstrike Issue Guys, they are working on it, in about maybe 45 mins things will be fix #csagent #crowdstrike #BSOD pic.twitter.com/0mkfRbUAF8

— Xaaavier_8613 (@Xaaavier_8613) July 19, 2024

Airports and Airlines Hit Hard

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) advised commuters in New York that customer information systems were temporarily offline due to the technical outage. However, train and bus services continued to run. The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) service was unaffected, but arrival information, station announcements, and platform signs were taken offline.

LaGuardia Airport faced the brunt of the disruptions, canceling 30 flights and delaying 10 others. At JFK Airport, travelers endured lengthy delays as 16 flights were canceled. Smaller airlines such as Frontier Airlines, Allegiant, and SunCountry reported outages earlier, while major carriers like American, Delta, and United acknowledged a technology issue with a third-party vendor.

Frontier Airlines was among the first to explicitly link the disruptions to a “major Microsoft technical outage.” The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that it was closely monitoring the situation, and several airlines requested assistance with ground stops.

Government and Industry Reactions

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg stated that the department was monitoring Frontier’s flight cancellation and delay issues, emphasizing that the government would hold airlines accountable for meeting passenger needs. Meanwhile, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz announced that the IT issue causing the global outage had been identified and a fix deployed. He clarified that the problem was not due to a security incident or cyberattack.

CrowdStrike’s update caused outages for millions of users of Microsoft Windows devices worldwide. The company said its engineers had undone the change but clients would need to use a workaround to download a fix to affected computers. “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” Kurtz posted on X.

Impact Across Various Sectors

The website DownDetector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, showed escalating disruptions in services at Visa, ADT security, Amazon, and various airlines, including American Airlines and Delta. The outage also affected news outlets, telecommunications providers, banks, and media broadcasters in Australia, the UK, Europe, and India.

In New Zealand, acting Prime Minister David Seymour stated that officials were moving quickly to understand the potential impacts of the global problem. He noted that there was no indication of malicious cyber activity. Israel’s Cyber Directorate reported that the outage affected the country’s post offices and hospitals, attributing the issue to a problem with CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity platform.

In the U.S., the FAA noted that airlines such as United, American, Delta, and Allegiant were all grounded. Travelers at Los Angeles International Airport were seen sleeping on jetway floors due to delays. In the UK, the budget airline Ryanair and train operators like TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink Railway faced disruptions. At London’s Stansted Airport, some check-in services were completed manually, although flights continued to operate.

International Disruptions

Widespread problems were reported at Australian airports, where passengers experienced long queues due to disabled online check-in services and self-service booths. In India, thousands of passengers faced disruptions, with privately-owned IndiGo airlines announcing that the Microsoft outage impacted operations.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport reported a “major impact on flights,” particularly on one of the busiest days of the year for the airport. In Germany, Berlin Airport announced delays in check-in processes, suspending flights until 10 a.m. Zurich Airport in Switzerland also suspended landings but allowed flights already in the air to land. Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport reported delays for some U.S.-bound flights.

Microsoft’s Response

Microsoft stated that the outage began around 6 p.m. ET on Thursday and that the company was working on rerouting impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate the issue more expediently. The company observed a positive trend in service availability but did not provide further details on the cause of the outage.

Broader Implications and Continuing Impact

The global outage highlights the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to technical failures, even in the absence of malicious attacks. With major airlines, banks, media outlets, and other sectors heavily reliant on cloud services, such disruptions underscore the need for robust contingency planning.

In the U.S., many 911 and non-emergency call centers weren’t working properly, according to the Alaska State Troopers. Frontier Airlines had late Thursday blamed a Microsoft technical outage for forcing it to implement a ground stoppage, leading to flight delays and cancellations.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport—one of the continent’s biggest connecting hubs—was shut to all arrivals due to the issues, according to Eurocontrol, Europe’s air-traffic-control agency. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said it had suspended most of its operations. London Gatwick was also experiencing issues, a spokesperson said. “We are using our backup process, but some passengers may experience delays while checking in and passing through security.”

Brandenburg Airport in Berlin halted operations until 10 a.m. local time, a spokeswoman said, and a notice on the airport’s website said a technical issue delayed check-in for passengers. Flights into five airports in Spain—including Barcelona—and arrivals into Berlin have also been limited, according to Eurocontrol.

At Australia’s busiest airport in Sydney, airline operations and terminal services were affected Friday afternoon local time, an airport spokesperson said. Qantas, the country’s biggest airline, said it was experiencing “some impacts to systems due to a global software issue that is impacting a number of other businesses.” The airline said flights were operating with some delays. A spokesperson for rival Virgin Australia said some cancellations and delays were expected.

Similar travel disruptions were reported in Turkey, Hong Kong, and India, where budget carrier SpiceJet said it had reverted to manual check-in and boarding processes. The London Stock Exchange’s news service was down. Known as RNS, the service publishes market-moving company announcements such as earnings reports and executive changes. A banner on the stock exchange website blamed a “3rd party global technical issue” but said other services operated normally.

Hospitals and Emergency Services Affected

In Britain and Germany, hospitals reported problems. Several practices within the National Health Service in England reported that the outage had hit their clinical computer system, which contains medical records and is used for scheduling. “We have no access to patient clinical records so are unable to book appointments or provide information,” Church Lane Surgery in Brighouse in Northern England said on X. The NHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In northern Germany, the Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital, which has branches in Kiel and Luebeck, said it had canceled all elective surgery scheduled for Friday, though patient and emergency care were unaffected.

Media Outlets and Financial Institutions Struggle

News outlets in Australia, including ABC and Sky News, were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels and reported sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers. Some news anchors broadcast live online from dark offices in front of computers showing “blue screens of death.” In South Africa, at least one major bank experienced “nationwide service disruptions” as customers reported they were unable to make payments using their bank cards at grocery stores and gas stations. The New Zealand banks ASB and Kiwibank said their services were down.

An X user posted a screenshot of an alert from CrowdStrike stating that the company was aware of “reports of crashes on Windows hosts” related to its Falcon Sensor platform. The alert was posted on a password-protected CrowdStrike site and could not be verified. CrowdStrike did not respond to a request for comment.

Moving Forward

The global outage caused by CrowdStrike’s update has emphasized the need for robust contingency planning and a reevaluation of dependencies on single points of failure within critical infrastructure. While the immediate technical issue has been addressed, the broader implications for cybersecurity, operational resilience, and global coordination remain areas of significant concern for industries and governments worldwide.