A global tech meltdown has triggered travel mayhem across Britain, with flights grounded, airport check-ins cancelled and trains axed.
The mass Microsoft outage has sparked chaos around the globe, with TV channels knocked out and banks taken offline.
The IT pandemonium has led to huge queues at airports across the UK, with holidaymakers at Gatwick reportedly unable to check in.
It comes as Britain braces for its busiest day for air travel since before the Covid pandemic, with millions of families preparing for their summer breaks.
Meanwhile Britain’s biggest train company told passengers to expect delays due to ‘widespread IT issues’, while Ryanair warned of ‘potential disruption’.
The Microsoft outage comes as:
A traveller at Gatwick Airport queuing for over three-and-a-half hours has described the scene at the travel hub as ‘bedlam’ with staff now handing out water to those stranded.
Dean Seddon started queuing at 6am to check in for a trip with his social media training company to Miami, Florida, ahead of their scheduled departure at 10am with Norse Atlantic Airways.
‘There are just people everywhere, there must be 400 people in this queue for the check in desk I’m at… it’s just bedlam,’ the 42-year-old from Plymouth told the PA news agency.
‘It’s one of those things where you kind of know we’re not going to fly, but you don’t want to leave because you don’t know.
‘(Staff are) doing the best they can but they don’t actually know when it’s going to be fixed, so it is frustrating, but you kind of feel for the staff as well.’
Mr Seddon said there had been some people getting ‘agitated’ in the queue but overall travellers had remained calm.
Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, has also been hit with a spokesman saying the travel hub was implementing contingency plans to ‘minimise’ the impact of the global IT outage.
The spokesperson said: ‘Microsoft is currently experiencing a global outage which is impacting select systems at Heathrow.
‘Flights are operational and we are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys.
‘Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.’
Govia Thameslink Railway, the parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern, issued the alert across social media.
It read: ‘We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network.
‘Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
‘We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.
‘Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.
‘We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.’
Gatwick Express also warned travellers they are ‘currently experiencing widespread IT issues’ across the entire network.
Meanwhile, South Western Railway confirmed there will be major disruption for their passengers too.
‘Due to IT issues across the South Western Railway network all ticket vending machines are currently non operational,’ a message read on X.
‘Please purchase your ticket online, on the train or speak to a member of station staff.
‘We apologise for the inconvenience this causes.’
A photo posted on social media shows long queues at Luton Airport.
The image, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, is accompanied by a caption stating that a ‘system failure’ is causing ‘massive queues’.
Edinburgh Airport has also been hit by the IT outage, with officials warning jetsetters the meltdown is causing longer waiting times.
A spokesperson said: ‘An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport. This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports.
‘Work is ongoing to resolve this and our teams are on hand to assist where we can. Passengers are thanked for their patience.’
Neighbouring Glasgow airport said it has been largely unaffected by the outage.
While Bristol Airport said some of its retailers are unable to accept card payments and advised passengers to check with their airlines before travelling.
On X, formerly Twitter, it posted: ‘A global IT issue is impacting travel. We advise passengers to contact their airlines for the latest flight information before travelling to the Airport.
‘Some of our retailers are currently unable to accept cards – we recommend passengers bring cash if possible.’
Ryanair has also seemingly been hit with the issue after it posted on its website urging passengers to arrive at airports three hours early blaming a ‘third party IT issue, which is outside Ryanair’s control and affect all airlines operating across the network’.
In a statement, the firm said: ‘Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global 3rd party system outage.
‘Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.
‘We advise passengers to arrive at the airport 3 hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions.
‘We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this 3rd party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network.’
Manchester Airport has said the Microsoft meltdown is only affecting Swissport, which handles some ground work for a few airlines.
Holidaymakers are still being checked-in manually which means delays for those travelling on flights supplied by Swissport.
A Manchester Airport spokesman confirmed passengers don’t need to change their travel arrangements and ‘we don’t want people thinking they need to come to the airport earlier because that can cause overcrowding’.
And as the outage continues to cause travel chaos, air passengers in India are being given hand-written boarding passes, with budget airline IndiGo among those handing out the make-shift tickets.
Meanwhile, those hoping to escape the UK by boat for the start of the school holidays will be facing disruption too, with the Port of Dover reporting delays.
Queues are reportedly up to 40 minutes long, with a spokesman for the ferry port saying: ‘We are currently experiencing IT outages and are processing traffic through border control. Dwell times were slightly longer for check-ins this morning, but this has been resolved. Queue in the bugger zone is 40 minutes.’
On the trains, National Rail Enquiries told passengers: ‘There are currently widespread IT issues across the entire network.
‘IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
‘As a result, some train operators are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice train cancellations.
‘Additionally, other key systems, including real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.’
US cyber security company CrowdStrike has admitted to being responsible for the error, as they report on their website they are ‘working on it’.
Sky News viewers were left with a static message on their TVs apologising for the ‘disruption’ to the service at 6am when broadcasting was meant to begin.
It read: ‘We apologise for the interuption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.’
The issue is impacting companies globally with online reports that , New Zealand, India, Japan, the US and the UK have all been effected.
While in the US emergency services lines are reportedly down in Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio.
Microsoft has posted on its social media account that is was ‘investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services’.
Microsoft users around the world have taken to social media to express their frustration and confusion at their computers also shutting down.
Sky Sports Presenter Jacquie Beltrao has posted on X saying: ‘We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying @SkyNews Breakfast.’
This has also lead to travel chaos as passengers attempting to board flights have been unable to check in due to the technical issues.
American Airlines was forced to ground its flights this morning due to a communication issue, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s status page.
According to service status monitoring website Downdetector, users were reporting issues with the services of Visa, BT, major supermarket chains, banks, online gaming platforms and media outlets.
A number of cybersecurity experts are reporting that a faulty update from CrowdStrike could be the cause of the outage.
Toby Murray, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne, said: ‘CrowdStrike Falcon has been linked to this widespread outage. CrowdStrike is a global cybersecurity and threat intelligence company.
‘Falcon is what is known as an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions – hacks – and respond to them. That means that Falcon is a pretty privileged piece of software in that it is able to influence how the computers it is installed on behave.
‘For example, if it detects that a computer is infected with malware that is causing the computer to communicate with an attacker, then Falcon could conceivably block that communication from occurring. If Falcon is suffering a malfunction then it could be causing a widespread outage for two reasons – one: Falcon is widely deployed on many computers, and two: because of Falcon’s privileged nature.
‘Falcon is a bit like anti-virus software: it is regularly updated with information about the latest online threats – so it can better detect them. We have certainly seen anti-virus updates in the past causing problems e.g. here.
‘It is possible that today’s outage may have been caused by a buggy update to Falcon.’