Microsoft’s global outage explained: 911 lines down, planes grounded and more

People woke up to technological chaos on Friday morning as Microsoft faced a massive, ongoing global IT outage, affecting airports, airlines, banks, and broadcasters around the world. The problem appears to be with Microsoft 365 services and apps, which many businesses and organizations rely on as part of their critical internet infrastructure. Perhaps most concerning of all, many states in the U.S. have reported that their 911 emergency numbers are down.

Microsoft said on X that it was aware of an issue impacting people’s ability to access 365 services late Thursday. The latest update was pushed out around 4 a.m. ET/1 a.m. PT, when it said“Multiple services are seeing improvements in availability as our mitigations progress.” The company did not immediately respond to request for further comment.

The outage, which also took down the London Stock Exchange, has been linked to a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which provides security for many Windows PCs and services around the world. In a statement Friday morning, Crowdstrike said the issue had been “identified, isolated and a fix implemented.”

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” the company said.

The last time there was such a widespread internet outage was when a service called Fastly went offline in 2021. It’s a reminder of how much of the internet is supported by shared infrastructure, making it vulnerable to widespread problems like this. While many companies’ stock prices fell sharply in the wake of Friday’s outage, it also affected many people on an individual level, from disrupting vacation plans to preventing access to emergency services.

Across the US, state troopers reported that 911 lines were out of service starting in 1999. Alaska. Unconfirmed reports suggest that some lines in Minnesota, Arizona, Indiana Ohio and New Hampshire have also been affected. Many people reported problems via the Down Detector Websitewith outages appearing to peak around midnight PT/3 a.m. ET. If you live in one of the affected states, please contact your local state trooper or police department for alternate emergency numbers.

Many television channels around the world were affected by the outage, with Sky News in the UK broadcasting from a telephone after its studio equipment broke down. The Paris Olympics organising committee also said it had been affected by the outage but had contingency plans in place.

In the UK, medical services have been affected, including the National Health Service appointment booking system and pharmacies, which are struggling to accept payments. Many non-urgent appointments and procedures have been cancelled.

Grounded flights: Can I fly today?

Airports from New Zealand to the UK reported problems in the early hours of Friday morning, particularly with their scanning technology, which failed to register passengers’ boarding passes. In India and Northern Ireland, departure boards and boarding passes were handwritten. Airlines, including European budget carrier Ryanair, reported problems with online check-in. Ryanair advised all passengers to arrive at least three hours early for their flight.

In the US, the Federal Aviation Authority has a number of flights grounded from American Airlines, United and Delta. Many U.S. airlines have not yet released statements on how they expect the day to unfold, but it may be wise for passengers planning to fly out of U.S. airports today to contact their airlines before they depart and also arrive earlier than normal to allow extra time to check in.

The major airlines operating in the US have been issuing regular updates, with Delta saying in a statement: “All Delta flights are paused as we work to resolve a supplier technology issue. Customers whose flights are affected will be notified by Delta via the Fly Delta app and text message. Customers should use the Fly Delta app for updates.”

In a statement about X, American Airlines said: “We are aware of a technology issue with a vendor that is impacting multiple airlines. American is working with the vendor to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.” In an updated statement to CNET, it said that as of 5 a.m. ET, it had managed to “safely restore our operation.”

United Airlines released a statement saying: “A third-party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United.” The airline initially said all flights would be held at their origins, but was able to resume operations later Friday morning. “We are resuming some flights, but expect disruptions to service throughout Friday,” a company spokesperson said. “We have issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans through United.com or the United app.”

Dutch airline KLM said the outage had made it “impossible” to handle flights and that the company had to largely suspend operations until the problem was resolved. In an update on X, the airline added: “Customers should expect delays and cancellations. We urge passengers to stay away from the airport if their flight is not departing or is severely delayed. We realise this is very inconvenient for customers, especially as the busy summer season has just started.”

Work is underway to resume operations and passengers are asked to monitor KLM.com or the airline’s app for updates.

What is CrowdStrike?

The company at the root of the Microsoft outage isn’t actually Microsoft at all. The source of the problem has been identified as a faulty update released by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Founded 11 years ago in Austin, Texas, CrowdStrike is often called upon by organizations after major cybersecurity breaches to investigate what went wrong. These include the Sony Pictures hack in 2014 and several events targeting the Democratic National Committee between 2015 and 2016.

Many enterprises around the world rely on CrowdStrike for critical cloud workload protections. In this case, CrowdStrike released an update for Windows PCs (it confirmed that Mac and Linux users were not affected) that contained a single defect. It caused Blue Screens of Death on many PCs and forced computers into a bootloop where they could not boot.

What makes the problem worse is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a universal, easy fix for the issue. “We are referring customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide full and ongoing updates on our website,” a company spokesperson said.

“We further encourage organizations to ensure they communicate with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels,” they added. “Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the safety and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

This story is still developing. Check back later for more information…