Global Tech Outage Disrupts Airlines, Banks, And Medical Services Worldwide

A massive global technology outage on Friday took down airlines, medical services, banks and scores of other business and services around the world.

It was a stunning example of the fragile dependence the global economy has on software and the cascading effect it can have when things go wrong.

The outage was attributed to CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm whose software is used by scores of industries around the world to protect against hackers and outside breaches. The problem appeared to result in crashes of machines running Microsoft Windows operating system.

The spillover effects have been felt all over the world.

At least three major U.S. airlines, American, United and Delta, grounded all flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, one day after a major outage at Microsoft briefly grounded some flights.

In Australia, problems persisted at Sydney Airport, one Australia’s largest and busiest transportation hubs, just as the weekend was getting underway for many. The airport said it had activated its contingency plan and deployed additional staff to the terminals.

“A global technical outage has impacted some airplane operations and terminal services,” the airport said on social media. “Flights are currently arriving and departing, however there may be some delays throughout the evening.”

Michelle McGuinness, Australia’s National Cyber Security coordinator, said on social media that she was aware of the outage and said it was related to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies.

“There is no information to suggest it is a cybersecurity incident,” she said.

Disruptions were also reported at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and Dubai International Airport.

There were also local reports in Phoenix that emergency response systems were down, causing at least one hospital to divert ambulances to other facilities.

Representatives for CrowdStrike did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Microsoft declined to comment.

Microsoft said the problem had affected multiple systems for customers in the central United States.

Below are some other reports from different parts of the world:

Chloe ShakinReporting from London:
The outage appeared to affect card payments at Waitrose stores across Britain. Cashless customers, unable to buy their morning coffee and croissant, are taking to social media to complain.

Andrés R. MartínezReporting from Seoul:
A very tiny sample, but I now have access to my Windows computer after being one of the many people across the world that had been blocked from accessing key Microsoft programs that make their computers run. Hopefully more people will regain access soon.

Stephen Merelman:
In New York City, the Metropolitan Transit Authority said on its website that train and bus service was continuing as normal, but that some customer information systems were offline.

Liz AldermanReporting from Paris:
In France, numerous media outlets reported problems. TF1 and Canal+, among the most watched, said in posts on X that they could not go on the air. “We’re all on stage, but there’s a gigantic breakdown in the control room” making it impossible to go live, Christophe Beaugrand-Guerrin, a TF1 presenter, wrote on X.

Lynsey ChutelReporting from Johannesburg:
The outage disrupted programming on Australian broadcasters, including the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Special Broadcasting Service, or SBS Australia, also used its Instagram account to tell viewers about the interruptions.

Rachel Chaundler:
There were scenes of chaos at the Manchester Airport. There were long lines in the depatures area at Terminal 3, where only two of the dozen or so check-in counters were working. Announcements over the public address system apologized for the delay, citing “worldwide” outages.

Megan SpeciaReporting from London:

Britain’s National Health Service was experiencing a loss of access to its computer systems across a number of hospitals and doctors offices, many of which rely on the same internal IT system. “Entire clinical system is down 20 mins before hundreds of people call for an appointment that we can’t book,” Liam Barker, a doctor in London wrote in a post on X.

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