Mass IT outage affects worldwide travel and GP surgeries – as fix issued for ‘blue screen of death’

Businesses including banks, airlines, train companies, telecommunications companies, TV and radio broadcasters, and supermarkets have been affected by a mass global IT outage.

Major US airlines including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines have been grounded, while airports in Germany, Amsterdam and Spain are also reporting issues.

It is believed the outage was related to an issue at global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and Microsoft – although it is unknown if it is the same issue affecting airports and train services across the globe.

According to an alert sent by CrowdStrike to its clients, the company’s falcon sensor software caused Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, which has begun to be referred to as the “blue screen of death”.

CrowdStrike chief executive, George Kurtz, said in a statement on X that “the defect [was] found in a single content update for Windows hosts”.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” Mr Kurtz said.

The outage appears to have affected Windows PCs globally, including Sky News in the UK which was not able to broadcast live TV first thing on Friday morning.

The company said in a statement that it was seeing disruption to its usual broadcasting and customer service teams due to the third-party outage and apologised for any inconvenience.

UK airports ‘experiencing delays’

London’s biggest airport, Heathrow, said in a statement that its “flights are operational though we are experiencing delays”.

It said it was implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys and passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.

Gatwick Airport said “passengers may experience some delays” due to the global outage – particularly when checking in and passing through security.

Luton Airport also said it was aware of the global IT issue and is currently using manual systems to support operations.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned customers of potential disruptions which it said would affect “all airlines operating across the network,” though it did not specify the nature of the disruptions.

While passengers at Edinburgh Airport were unable to use automated boarding pass scanners and monitors at security displayed a message saying “server offline”, according to a Reuters witness.

The airport had reverted to checking boarding passes manually, the witness said.

‘Beyond the control of GP surgeries’

The IT outage has also reached GP surgeries across the UK, which said they are unable to access patient records or book appointments.

NHS England said the IT outage is “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” in England but there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services.

Grimethorpe Surgery in Barnsley said it had no access to the clinical system, EMIS Web – which allows healthcare practitioners to view and contribute to a patient’s healthcare records.

The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire wrote on X: “All practices in the UK using the NHS-commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems.

“This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online.”

Another surgery in Putney, southwest London, shows an error message online when patients attempt to book appointments.

The Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, asked patients with “routine concerns” to wait until Monday after the booking system has been affected by the global outage.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police said it has not been affected, and everything seems to be working normally.

Train cancellations likely

Also in the UK, Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – all four of Govia Thameslink Railway’s brands – said its services were experiencing widespread IT issues.

“We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks,” the company said.

“Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected.”

National Rail said its IT teams are “actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem”.

Out-of-date prices at London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is among the businesses that have been affected by the global outage, Sky News’ business correspondent, Ian King, said.

A statement posted on the exchange’s website early said that a technical issue was being investigated with the publication of RNS – the exchange’s Regulatory News Service – announcements.

When trading began at 8am this morning, the exchange’s website was still showing prices from the close on Thursday evening.

The FTSE-100 opened 50 points lower – around 0.62% – at the open but no prices were available on the exchange’s website, King said.

Other major European stock indices have also opened to the downside this morning, with the DAX in Germany down by 0.55% half an hour into the session, while the CAC-40 in France and the MIB in Italy down by 0.45% apiece.

Users on the subreddit for cyber security firm Crowdstrike reported issues in India, the United States and New Zealand.

While users in Australia began reporting issues early on Friday, stating they had been locked out of their workstations.

Within hours, Australia’s National Security Coordinator said it was aware of the large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across the country.

It said there was currently no information to suggest the outage is a cyber security incident.