Breaking: Crowdstrike linked to global IT outages that's hit airlines, airports and railways

Chaos has ensued outside of the travel sector, too with banks, GPs and retail affected

This story is developing. Last updated 14:30.

Airlines, airports and railways are among those affected by mass IT outages being reported around the world.

The cause of the outage has been attributed to Cybersecurity specialist Crowdstrike's update to a piece of its antivirus software, which is causing Windows computers to suddenly shut down.

The issue mostly seems to be affecting PCs running on Windows 10 software following the security update.

The firm has since identified the problem and deployed a fix. 

Crowdstrike CEO, George Kurtz has now spoken on the matter. He said: "Crowdstrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.

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

"We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

"We further recommend organisations ensure they’re communicating with Crowdstrike representatives through official channels.

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

Microsoft Azure appeared to be having an issue simultaneously which caused systems to shut down but this now appears to be a result of the Crowdstrike update.

Microsoft has issued a statement: "We're aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming."

There are no reports of a hack and data and personal information all seems to be safe for the moment.

Kurtz confirmed this. He said: "Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."

Travel technology supplier HBX Group was mildly affected. The Group's CTOO, Paula Felstead, said: "We are pleased to confirm that a small part of our business impacted by the global outage has been quickly restored. 

"Throughout the incident we continued to operate our major platforms normally. We will continue to monitor the situation closely."

The IT failure has been branded by some, as the "biggest" IT failure since 2017, including Tesla's Elon Musk, who has named it the "biggest IT fail ever" on X.

Microsoft has advised on its website that "several reboots (as many as 15 have been reported) may be required, but overall feedback is that reboots are an effective troubleshooting step at this stage.” 

The Sky News channel was off air due to the problems, which are also affecting banks, shops and railways, but has resumed its live coverage with a reduced offering.

Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and Edinburgh are among the UK airports reporting problems, while Schiphol, Tokyo and Sydney are some of the overseas hubs affected.

Reuters reported that major US carriers including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines issued “ground stops”, preventing planes from taking off on Friday morning citing communication issues, less than an hour after Microsoft resolved its cloud services outage that hit several low-cost carriers.

American Airlines has now said that it has been able to "safely re-establish" its operations.

The Ryanair website warns: “Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global 3rd party system outage.

“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 affect all airlines operating across the network.”

Gatwick airport said on X: “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.”

Gatwick Express said it is experiencing “widespread IT issues” across its entire network.

“Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem,” it said. “We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations.

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

Edinburgh airport reported on X: “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.”

The Telegraph reported that Manchester airport said the IT outage is only affecting Swissport, which does ground handling work for a few airlines.

The company is manually checking people in, meaning that check-in for flights served by Swissport is taking a little longer and making those areas busier.

A Manchester airport spokesman said passengers don’t need to alter their plans, adding “we don’t want people thinking they need to come to the airport earlier because that can cause overcrowding”.

Some retailers have also been affected and cannot take card payments.

The BBC said that some check-ins are being done manually at Stansted but “flights are still operating as normal”.

“Our main operational systems are unaffected…but some retail payment machine services have been impacted,” said a spokesperson.

Berlin Brandenburg airport has posted a message on X, saying: “Due to a technical fault, there will be delays in check-in.”

In Spain, an “incident” has been reported at all the country’s airports, said the BBC.

Even London cab drivers are affected, with many struggling to take card payments. 

Microsoft investigated promptly to get companies back up and running to the Cloud with Crowdstrike following suit, but services will be affected well into the day as airlines, airports and other industries affected get its devices back up.

Ilkka Turunen, field CTO of software supply management provider Sonatype, said: "In terms of technical details, the update causes a BSOD loop on any Windows machine essentially making it boot and crash on an infinite loop. 

"Making it worse is the fact that there are a significant number of Windows machines that the update was auto-installed on overnight. There are workarounds that customers of theirs will apply, but it seems to be very manual.

"It’s definitely a supply chain style incident - what it shows is that one popular vendor botching an update can have a huge impact on its customers and how far a single well-orchestrated update can spread in a single night."