The CrowdStrike outage caused havoc across a swathe of industries spanning the global economy.
Airlines, railways, hospitals, television stations, sports clubs and financial systems were among the sectors hit by the technology glitches, prompting national governments to convene emergency meetings and stock markets to fall.
Travel
The US’s Federal Aviation Administration shut down operations due to the outage. There were about 110,000 commercial flights scheduled worldwide on Friday. By 6am ET, nearly 1,400 of them had been cancelled, according to reports.
US airlines including Delta, United and American grounded flights because of communication problems, while airports descended into chaos and some tourists were hit with large charges for purchasing tickets for new flights after original plans were cancelled.
Some rail transportation was also hit, with the metro system in the US capital, Washington DC, experiencing delays. And New York City’s subway system agency, the MTA, said that “some MTA customer information systems are temporarily offline due to a worldwide technical outage”. It added that train and bus services were unaffected.
In the UK, Gatwick and Luton airports were among the hubs where airline check-in systems were hit, while the biggest commuter rail network, GTR, said its Thameslink and Southern trains were disrupted due to communications systems failing. South Western Railway said all of its ticket vending machines had stopped working, and West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway and TransPennine Express were also affected.
Health
Patients had important hospital appointments cancelled at the last minute in countries including the UK, Germany and Israel – with the Royal Surrey NHS trust, in the south of England, declaring a critical incident and cancelling radiotherapy appointments scheduled for Friday morning.
Doctors’ surgeries in the UK said they were unable to access patient records or book appointments, as they reported via social media that they were unable to access online systems. It is understood that NHS hospitals and 999 services are unaffected by the outage.
Some hospitals in Germany and the Netherlands cancelled operations, while others in Israel and the US said they were also having problems, often related to access to electronic medical records.
In the US, the emergency 911 lines went down in parts of Alaska, with officials posting alternative phone numbers on social media. There were similar problems reported in other states, including New Hampshire and Ohio.
Financial systems
The systems failure threatened to leave people without their weekly wages and monthly salaries as payroll systems seized up.
Melanie Pizzey, the chief executive of the Global Payroll Association, says: “We’ve been contacted by numerous clients already today who have been unable to access their payroll software due to the Microsoft outage and others who have been urged to log out with immediate effect.
“Depending on the length of this outage, it could have very serious implications for businesses, particularly those who process payroll on a weekly basis. Furthermore, we could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage.”
In financial services, Metro Bank reported problems with its phone lines in the UK and Santander said card payments “may be affected”. Employees at the US bank JP Morgan were unable to log on to their systems and the London Stock Exchange said there were problems with its news service.
Bloomberg TV reported that it knew of hedge funds that were unable to process certain trades and that “some people had to go home”.
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Retail
Retailing payment systems also appeared to have been hit by the systems failure, with some UK shopkeepers erecting “cash only” signs.
A spokesperson for the UK supermarket Morrisons said there were some “isolated incidents” with payment systems during the morning, which were later resolved with systems returning to working normally.
Its rival Waitrose said it was taking contactless payments largely as normal, as well as still processing payments by chip and pin and cash. A spokesperson for the supermarket said it had been able to take card payments throughout the day, but had been “briefly limited on contactless payments”.
Payment systems in some branches of the home improvements store B&Q were also affected, according to reports from customers.
Sport
In France, where the Olympic Games are due to start next week, there were reports of issues.
The organisers of the Games said: “Paris 2024’s technical teams are fully mobilised to limit the impact and we have activated our contingency plans to ensure the continuation of our operations.”
A few football clubs also warned that their ticketing systems are under pressure, with reigning Scottish champions Celtic announcing they were postponing ticket sales. In England Manchester United did the same.
Several French television channels were reported to be experiencing technical problems, including difficulties displaying their graphics and weather maps.
In the UK, Sky News and CBBC were also temporarily off air, before resuming broadcasting.