Microsoft Outage Grounds Planes and Leaves Passengers Queuing for Hours

For some travelers taking Friday off to go somewhere, things didn’t go according to plan, thanks to a Microsoft global outage that resulted in major airlines grounding flights and GP surgeries and pharmacies across England unable to book appointments or access patients’ prescriptions. Even Sky News, Rupert Murdoch’s British free-to-air television news channel, stopped broadcasting on July 19th, 2024.

A few minutes before 9 AM BST, Gatwick Airport acknowledged via its social media channels that delays should be expected. However, passengers were still asked to arrive at their scheduled flight times.

“We are affected by the global Microsoft issues, so passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security. Passengers should still arrive for their normal check-in time. We apologize for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

The global outage was the result of a Microsoft Windows security update that, just as thousands of passengers and patients’ plans, also didn’t quite go according to plan this morning. The UK train network was also hit, with Britain’s biggest train company, the parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, and Great Northern, warning passengers to expect disruption due to “widespread IT issues.”

Author and entrepreneur Dean Seddon was one of the people caught at Gatwick. He was forced to queue outside the airport for his British Airways flight to Miami when the number of stranded passengers reached concerning numbers. He thanked Microsoft in a sarcastic message on X, formerly Twitter.

“Right now depending on where you are in the world, an IT glitch means that you can’t buy a croissant, see a doctor, or catch a flight. This is a stark reminder of the dangers of our increased reliance on cloud-based software. Here in the UK, the most worrying issue appears to be the EMIS outage, which has got GPs handwriting prescriptions,” says Wil Jones, Technical Director at UK Software Developers Propel Tech.

Market analyst Grzegorz Drozdz at Invest Conotoxia also agrees that the latest outage highlights the dangers of a modern world highly dependent on technology.

“The incident has made us realize how dependent we are on a single technology company and how serious the consequences of a failure of such an entity on this scale can be, with banks and airports paralyzing operations during the peak holiday season and causing chaos in many other sectors,” says Drozdz. Supermarkets and banks in Germany, Australia, and South Africa have also been experiencing difficulties related to Microsoft being down, and other major institutions across the globe also reported computer issues disrupting services.

What Really Caused the Microsoft Outage

Cyber-security firm CrowdStrike has admitted that the outage affecting millions of people and businesses on July 19th was caused by an update to its Falcon antivirus software, designed to protect Microsoft Windows devices from malicious attacks.

Earlier today, the company—headquartered in Texas but with a reach across the world—re-shared a tweet posted by its CEO, George Kurtz, announcing that CrowdStrike is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” The post also reassured that Mac and Linux hosts were not impacted by the worldwide outage and that it was not a security incident or cyberattack.

“The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” the post reads.

The post Microsoft Outage Grounds Planes and Leaves Passengers Queuing for Hours appeared first on Euronewsweek.

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