Microsoft crash LIVE: CrowdStrike says tech outage could take 'some time' for firms to 'recover' from

Businesses and institutions around the world have been knocked offline after a major IT outage.

Trains and airports were hard hit, with Britain’s biggest train company, the parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern, warning passengers to expect disruption due to “widespread IT issues”.

Ryanair was among the major UK airlines saying its flights were being disrupted by the outage, while Sky News was knocked off-air on Friday morning.

Banks, supermarkets and other major institutions across the globe also reported computer issues, with thousands of GP practices across England struggling to book appointments and issue prescriptions.

Meanwhile, all flights from several major US airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines, were grounded due to a “communication issue.”

The issue was caused by a flawed update from the US cyber security company CrowdStrike, prompting problems on Windows computers.

Microsoft said the underlying cause for outage has been fixed, but the residual impact of cybersecurity outages are continuing.

Key effects of major global outage:

• Sky News among broadcasters knocked off air

• Major airports warn of long delays as flights grounded in US

• UK's biggest train company warns of cancellations

• GP surgeries across country unable to access IT systems

Live coverage ends

20:20 , Miriam Burrell

That’s all for our live coverage on the global IT outage today.

For more information read our story here.

Goodnight.

Flights at Gatwick to operate as usual tomorrow

19:49 , Miriam Burrell

Gatwick Airport has said its IT systems are now operating as normal and it expects the "majority" of flights to operate as usual tomorrow, the BBC reports.

“Some delays and cancellations will however continue this evening and over the weekend. We strongly advise passengers to check with their airline for the latest updates," a spokesperson said.

They add that there will be additional staff in the terminals this evening.

London Ambulance service gets 4,500 emergency calls amid IT outage

18:50 , John Dunne

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) is under pressure after it responded to 4,500 emergency calls by 5pm on Friday as the global IT outage hit the NHS, the chief executive said.

Some patients who would normally have gone to their GP or a health centre have been forced to call 999 because those services have been hit by the software problem.

It comes as searing temperatures in the capital, with a reading of more than 31C at Heathrow, put further pressure on the LAS on Friday.

The 3,000 calls received before 2pm on Friday are a third higher than a normal 24-hour period. The number increased to 4,500 by 5pm.

Airlines cancel 143 flights over IT outage

18:12 , John Dunne

Some 143 flights scheduled to depart UK airports on Friday have been cancelled amid the global IT outage, aviation analytics company Cirium said.

This equates to 4.6% of scheduled departures, the firm said, while 142 flights due to land in the UK were cancelled.

Globally 4,295 flights – or 3.9% of those scheduled – have been cancelled.

Streeting urges people to "bear with" GPs amid IT crisis

18:10 , John Dunne

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has urged people to “bear with” GPs amid a major IT outage that has caused “considerable disruption” to appointment bookings and other services.

Thousands of GP practices have been affected, with NHS England confirming there has been an issue with the EMIS Web system, which is understood to be used by about 60% of practices in England.

There have also been issues with administrative systems in some hospitals while some ambulance services have reported a surge in demand.

Pharmacies have also been affected, with the National Pharmacy Association warning that disruption is likely to continue through the weekend, even when systems are back online, as outlets deal with a backlog of medicine deliveries.

The PA news agency understands that around 3,700 GP practices may be affected. People trying to access the NHS app have also encountered problems.

In a post on X, Mr Streeting wrote: “This is having a particular impact on GP appointments and electronic prescribing.

“Please bear with your local GPs if they’re grappling with this on top of normal pressures.”

Heathrow "working hard" to get passengers on their journeys amid global IT outage

16:58 , John Dunne

Heathrow Airport has said it is “working hard” to get passengers “on their way” following a major global IT outage.

“We continue to work with our airport colleagues to minimise the impact of the global IT outage on passenger journeys.

“Flights continue to be operational and passengers are advised to check with their airlines for the latest flight information,” a spokesperson for the airport said.

Microsoft tells customers to contact CrowdStrike over 'bug check' message.

16:52 , John Dunne

A Microsoft spokesperson said: “We are aware of a scenario in which customers experience issues with their machines causing a bug check (blue screen) due to a recent CrowdStrike update.

“We recommend customers to follow guidance provided by CrowdStrike.”

Some shops put "cash only" signs up as card payment system crashes

16:48 , John Dunne

Some shops are putting up “cash only” signs on their doors.

A spokesman for the supermarket Morrisons said there were some “isolated incidents” with payment systems this morning, which have now been resolved and systems are working normally.

Waitrose said it had been “briefly limited on contactless payments”.

A shoe shop in Cambridge had taped a handwritten sign to its door, which read: “Due to global IT issue, cash only. Sorry for any inconvenience”, according to the Guardian.

Pictured: Gatwick Airport

16:44 , Miriam Burrell

'Today was not a security or cyber incident,' CrowdStrike CEO says

16:36 , Miriam Burrell

CrowdStrike’s chief executive has said the cybersecurity firm’s customers “remain fully protected” despite the ongoing global IT outage.

In a new statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, George Kurtz said: “Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected.

“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption.

“As noted earlier, the issue has been identified and a fix has been deployed. There was an issue with a Falcon content update for Windows Hosts.”

London Ambulance Service experiences 'huge' surge in calls

16:25 , Sami Quadri

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) has experienced “huge increases” in the number of calls to its 999 and 111 services following global IT issues.

Chief executive of LAS, Daniel Elkeles, said: “Following the global IT outage that has impacted some NHS services across the capital, our call handlers and ambulance crews are incredibly busy with huge increases in the number of calls to both our 999 and 111 services.

“In fact, by 2pm today, we had received more than 3,000 999 calls and 3,000 calls to our 111 services – this is a third higher than we would usually receive in a full 24 hour period.

“Our teams are always here to help if you need us and we encourage anyone who needs our services to continue to contact us.

“We are working very hard to make sure we are getting to patients as quickly as possible, but please be aware that our response times today may be impacted by this global issue.

“We ask that people use our 999 services wisely and contact their pharmacy or visit NHS 111 online where possible. Londoners can continue to help us by only calling 999 in a serious medical emergency.”

More than 3,300 flights cancelled worldwide

16:07

More than 3,300 flights have been cancelled globally, accounting for roughly 3% of all scheduled services, according to aviation data firm Cirium.

Whilst this figure represents the total number of cancellations, it is worth noting that not all may be attributed to the ongoing IT outage.

Pay could be impacted, according to Global Payroll Association

15:44 , Sami Quadri

Workers could face delays in receiving their wages due to a widespread IT outage affecting industries globally, according to the Global Payroll Association.

Chief executive Melanie Pizzey cautioned that the disruption could have "serious implications for businesses" nationwide, with firms processing weekly payroll likely to be hit hardest.

Pizzey warned that the technical issues might create a backlog, potentially pushing back pay dates for employees on weekly or monthly schedules.

She added: "At best, payroll staff will need to work overtime to resolve the problem."

Londoners urged to continue donating blood amid IT chaos

14:58 , Josh Salisbury

Londoners are being urged to continue donating blood amid the outage, with NHS officials saying they have received calls wondering whether appointments are affected.

An NHS Blood and Transplant spokesperson says: “NHS Blood and Transplant are calling on Londoners to book and keep appointments to donate blood to boost NHS resilience at this time.

“There remains a particularly urgent need for O negative blood.

“Blood donation systems are not affected and we currently have a high number of appointments available at our donor centres across London this weekend and over coming days and weeks.”

Ryanair tells passengers on cancelled flights to leave airports

14:15 , Jacob Phillips

Ryanair urged passengers whose flights have been cancelled to leave the airport.

The airline said in a statement: “Unfortunately, we’ve been forced to cancel a small number of flights today due to this global third-party IT outage.

“Affected passengers have been notified and are advised to log into their myRyanair account once systems are back online to see their options.

“A full list of cancellations is available at http://ryanair.com. If your flight has been cancelled, we kindly request that you leave the airport as the IT outage means we cannot currently assist passengers at the airport.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by this global third-party IT outage, and we are working hard to minimise disruption and keep passengers informed.”

Passengers at Gatwick Airport checked in manually

14:03 , Jacob Phillips

Passengers at Gatwick Airport are being checked in manually on specific flights to ease long queues that have emerged because of a global IT outage.

The global glitch has led to long queues for the check-in desks at the airport, with some passengers standing still for several hours.

In response, airport staff have started to check passengers onto specific flights to ease the queues in order of intended departure time.

One member of staff could be heard shouting “Budapest” amid a large crowd of people urging the relevant passengers to come forward.

Premier League ticket sales affected

13:47 , Jacob Phillips

Brentford FC has told fans it has been impacted by the global IT issue.

The west London club’s Ticketmaster platform is currently experiencing technical difficulties.The football club said it is looking to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

'It could be some time before all systems recover' - CrowdStrike CEO

13:40 , Jacob Phillips

CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said the company would “make sure that every customer is fully recovered” from the ongoing global IT outage.

Speaking to NBC’s Today Show, Mr Kurtz said many firms were rebooting their computers and coming back online, but said it could still be “some time” before all systems had completely recovered.

“We’ve been on with our customers all night and working with them – many of our customers are rebooting the system and it’s coming up and operational because we fixed it on our end,” he said.

“Some of the systems that aren’t recovering, we’re working with them, so it could be some time for some systems that just automatically won’t recover, but it is our mission to make sure that every customer is fully recovered and we’re not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were and we’ll continue to protect them and keep the bad guys out of their systems.”

Asked if he ever thought an outage of this scale was possible, the CrowdStrike founder said: “Software is a very complex world and there’s a lot of interactions, and always staying ahead of the adversary is a tall task.”

Passengers unable to access passes at Gatwick Airport

13:39 , Jacob Phillips

A traveller at Gatwick Airport said there was “confusion” as staff initially tried to charge customers 50 euro to issue new boarding passes as passengers were unable to access their passes virtually.

Carlos Neto, 38, told the PA news agency his Wizz Air flight to Faro to visit family was scheduled for 7.40am but left at around 9am due to delays caused by the systems failure.

Mr Neto, a dancer based in New York, said staff initially told passengers they would be charged 50 euro to issue new boarding passes, before realising there was an IT issue and issuing boarding passes for free, which “made everyone late”.

He said “the entire system was confusing” to passengers as the departure screen incorrectly said “gate closed” even though the gate was remaining open until all passengers arrived.

He added: “The lines were very long because passengers from other flights were then also delayed. Because no one explained what was happening I think it created more confusion.”

More than 1,400 flights cancelled amid airport chaos

12:32 , Josh Salisbury

Almost 1,400 flights have been cancelled worldwide as a result of the outage.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said around 1,390 flights had been cancelled by 11am.

This includes more than 500 flights in the US and nearly 100 flights in Germany.

Read a full list of cancelled London flights here.

Hospital declares critical incident over IT issues

12:16 , Josh Salisbury

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust has declared a critical incident amid the major IT outage.

It says the outage has affected the system it uses to deliver radiotherapy treatments.

The trust said it had contacted patients who were due to have radiotherapy this morning to reschedule appointments.

"We hope these systems will be up and running

An update said the hospital is now able to deliver radiotherapy services and this afternoon's appointments will take place as scheduled.

Queues outside the building in Stansted Airport

12:07 , Josh Salisbury

The queue at London Stansted Airport is snaking outside the main terminal building.

Courtney Kemal, 32, who had already been in the queue for around two hours by late morning, said her two sons aged five and seven were "obviously getting stressed".

The business student, from Romford, east London, said their Ryanair flight taking them on an eight-day holiday to Magaluf was due to leave at 12.40pm and they had arrived at 9am.

She said she had heard "nothing" from the airline and said "we had no warning of this".

Most trains 'still running' despite disruption

11:32 , Josh Salisbury

Industry body the Rail Delivery Group said "most trains are still running" despite the effect of the IT outage.

A spokesperson said: "Train operators have been affected by ongoing global IT issues which may result in some short notice service changes and cancellations, also impacting real-time information screens and services at stations.

"We are sorry for any customers experiencing disruption to their journeys today; staff are working hard to resolve the issues as soon as possible.

"Most trains are still running across the country and rail staff will be able to provide the latest information to customers in person.”

Pictured: How IT outage is impacting countries around the world

11:15 , Josh Salisbury

The outage is affecting countries across the world.

In Thailand, crowds can be seen building up at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

In France, similar crowds have been seen at Orly Airport near Paris.

And in Japan, passengers could been crowding around airport check-in desks which have been hard hit by the outage.

Government puts crisis officials on response

11:00 , Josh Salisbury

Government crisis officials are co-ordinating the response to the major IT outage, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden has said.

In a post on X, he said: "Many people are being affected by today's IT outages impacting services across the country and globally.

"Ministers are working with their sectors and respective industries on the issue.

"I am in close contact with teams co-ordinating our response through the COBR response system."

Cobra is the committee tasked with handling matters of national emergency or major disruption.

Fix for fault 'has been deployed', says firm behind outage

10:57 , Josh Salisbury

CrowdStrike, the company whose security update is thought to be behind the outage, has said it was caused by a single “defect”

George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike said: “Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.

"Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.

"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

He added: “Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of Crowdstrike customers."

Resolution to IT chaos 'forthcoming' - Microsoft

10:44 , Josh Salisbury

In a statement, Microsoft said a resolution for Windows devices was "forthcoming".

It said: "We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third party software platform.

“We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming."

MPs forced to use cash in Parliament's cafes

10:34 , Josh Salisbury

MPs are being forced to use cash because the restaurants in Parliament cannot currently take card.

Parliamentary catering services were only accepting cash payments on Friday morning, although cash machines in Westminster were still working.

IT outage causing disruption to most GPs, NHS confirms

10:26 , Josh Salisbury

The IT outage is "causing disruption in the majority of GP practices" in England, the NHS has confirmed.

But there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, NHS England said.

A spokesperson said: “The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with a GP appointment and patient record system.

“If you have an appointment please do attend unless you are told otherwise. If you need help use 111 online or by phone and in an emergency call 999.”

One London GP affected, Dr Farah Jameels said she is unable to access patient notes, imaging results, medication history and blood tests.

"We are still working through what this could mean for our practice," she said.

"At present we cannot access any patient notes and are trying to assess patients on a case by case basis.

"We are unable to access blood test results, imaging results, clinical history and anticipate that the clinical documentation work will accumulate through the course of the day.”

She called the disruption “unsafe”.

Pharmacists also hit alongside GPs

10:09 , Josh Salisbury

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) confirmed the IT outage is disrupting community pharmacies.

A spokesperson said: "We're aware that due to global IT outages that services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today.

"We urge patients to be patient whilst visiting their pharmacy.

"We're urgently raising this issue with the NHS England."

Around 60 per cent of GP surgeries may be seeing IT problems today, because the outage is causing issues with EMIS Web, which is the most widely used clinical system for primary care in the UK.

'It's bedlam', says Gatwick Airport passenger

10:05 , Josh Salisbury

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 said.

"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."

Sky News returns to air

09:52 , Josh Salisbury

Sky News has returned back to air after the broadcaster was affected by the major IT outage affecting businesses across the world.

After welcoming viewers back to the channel, the morning anchor reported on the news saying: "A major global IT outage is hitting businesses worldwide, including here at Sky News."

The presenters referred to printed out notes during the report on Friday morning as the broadcaster got back on its feet.

The broadcaster had been unable to air live footage for around an hour.

Outage 'caused by bug in update'

09:49 , Josh Salisbury

The outage is not thought to be a cyber attack, but instead a “buggy” update to a critical piece of software.

Cyber security expert Dan Card, from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said: "It looks like a bug to a regular security update, rather than any form of 'mega cyber attack', but this is still causing worldwide challenges and is likely to require a large number of people to take manual remedial steps.

"Companies should make sure their IT teams are well supported as it could be a difficult and highly stressful weekend for them as they help customers.

"People often forget the people that are running around fixing things."

Calls for Government to hold emergency meeting

09:46 , Josh Salisbury

The Liberal Democrats have called for the Government to hold an “urgent” emergency COBRA meeting in response to the IT outage, reports Rachael Burford.

Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office Spokesperson Christine Jardine said: “The public needs to be reassured that the disruption to their travel or their desperately needed GP appointments will be minimised.

“Getting critical infrastructure up and running again must be priority number one. The National Cyber Security Centre should also be working with small businesses and other organisations to help them deal with the outage.”

“This once again lays bare the need to improve our digital infrastructure and truly modernise our economy in order to prevent the incidents from happening again.”

Luton forced to turn to pen and paper amid airports chaos

09:38 , Josh Salisbury

Luton Airport has said it is using manual systems for check-in and boarding because of the IT outage.

On X, formerly Twitter, the airport posted: "We are aware of an ongoing global IT issue that is impacting check-in and boarding procedures for some airlines.

"We have additional staff on hand to support and operations are continuing with manual systems.

"Passengers are advised to check with their airlines for flight updates."

GP surgeries unable to book appointments

09:33 , Josh Salisbury

Around 60 per cent of GP surgeries could be affected by the IT outage.

Surgeries across the country have said they are unable to access patient records or book appointments.

This is because the outage is causing issues with EMIS Web, which is the most widely used clinical system for primary care in the UK.

It enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.

It is used by around 60 per cent of surgeries, reported Sky News.

It is understood that NHS hospitals are currently unaffected by the outage.

Wetherspoon among hospitality venues affected

09:27 , Josh Salisbury

Pub chain J D Wetherspoon has confirmed the outage has disabled the pub chain’s app.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm the Wetherspoons app is currently not working.

“We are working hard to resolve the situation. However, customers can pay for their food and drinks in cash.”

Airport chaos comes amid 'busiest day for flights since 2019'

09:25 , Josh Salisbury

The IT outage hitting airports comes amid the busiest day for flights since 2019.

Analysis by Cirium says 9,075 flights are scheduled to depart UK airports this weekend - with the busiest number of daily departures since October 2019.

There were long queues at airports, while trains were also disrupted because of the problem.

Gatwick - the second busiest airport in the UK - said it was affected.

There were long queues at Luton Airport, while Edinburgh Airport warned that queue times are longer.

Ryanair advised passengers to arrive at airports early as they switched to manual check-in.

Emergency 911 line down in US state

09:16 , Josh Salisbury

The emergency 911 line is down in at least one US state as a result of the outage.

In Alaska, the State Troopers said: “Due to a nationwide technology-related outage, many 911 and non-emergency call centres are not working correctly across the State of Alaska.”

Widespread train disruption expected amid outage

09:10

Alongside widespread disruption to airlines and airports, Britain’s major train companies have also warned of delays due to the fault.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) - parent company of Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern - said it was currently unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations.

It warns this will lead 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,” it added.

GTR carries more passengers and has more trains and staff than any other operator in Britain.

In addition, train operator TransPennine Express (TPE) said some of its stations and services were also hit.

Gatwick warns of delays to passengers

09:04

Gatwick Airport has also said it is affected by the global Microsoft issues.

It has warned "passengers may experience some delays”.

On X, formerly Twitter, the airport posted: "We are affected by the global Microsoft issues, so passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security.

"Passengers should still arrive for their normal check-in time.

"We apologise for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

Other UK airports have also said they are affected, including Stansted and Edinburgh, while in India and Australia, widespread disruption has been reported at airports.

GP surgeries unable to access NHS computer system

08:58

GP surgeries across the country have warned they cannot access their IT systems.

Some have warned it "will have a big effect" on their normal services because “all practices in the UK using the NHS commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems.”

Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote on X: "We're impacted by the IT outage.

"This will have a big effect on us, so apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused, and delays on the phone."

Another post by Pocklington Group Practice in the East Riding of Yorkshire said: "Due to ongoing Windows issues affecting IT worldwide, the practice is currently unable to function as normal.

"This may result in appointments needing to be cancelled and rearranged. Updates will follow when available."

Sky News returns to air briefly

08:53 , Josh Salisbury

Sky News returned to broadcasting live television briefly on Friday morning - before being knocked off-air again.

The broadcaster earlier apologised to viewers for the disruption caused by the tech outage.

A spokesperson said: “We are working hard to restore all services."

Sky News sports presenter Jacquie Beltrao had shared a photo of the breakfast team in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and said the team were "obviously not on air" but that they are "trying" to return.

Airports hit by tech fault

08:49 , Josh Salisbury

The glitch is causing delays at major airports around the world, including in the UK.

London Stansted Airport said that some airline check-in services are being done manually as a result of the IT outage, but "flights are still operating as normal".

Edinburgh Airport said the IT outage is causing longer waiting times, while images on social media show long queues at Luton Airport.