Microsoft down LIVE: Outage sparks chaos across the globe as TV channels, airports and banks are knocked offline

Visa, the banking giant, has claimed to be unaffected by the global tech outage affecting millions of people.

There is no indication of any impact on Visa’s ability to process payments from this issue.

Our systems are operating normally.

We are aware of reports of people being unable to make payments and are working with our financial institution clients to understand any impact on their services to cardholders and merchants.

Supermarket chain Waitrose has gone ‘cash only’ in some stores as its card machines have gone down.

A checkout worker at Kings Cross Station told customers: ‘It is cash only at the moment. The card machines are not working.’

A queue of around 30 people was seen snaking around the supermarket in the London station.

One shopper said: ‘There is a massive IT issue and all the self checkouts are not working. It is cash only.’

A different shopper said on X that his local Waitrose store had also gone cash only.

Duncan Woods tweeted: ‘Just back from Waitrose where card machines have gone down. It’s absolute chaos.

‘By the time I got home my edadame beans were almost defrosted. Stay safe out there.’

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said there is ‘no impact’ to ‘critical infrastructure’ in the country.

In a message of calm on X he said he understood the ‘concern’ of his citizens.

I understand Australians are concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services.

There is no impact to critical infrastructure, government services or Triple-0 services at this stage.

According to aviation analytics firm, Cirium, has estimated that so far today 1078 flights have been cancelled around the world.

NHS England has issued an alert claiming that the ‘majorirty of GP practices’ in England have been affected by the global outage.

However, it adds that there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services.

Travel journalist Simon Calder told Sky News: ‘This is the biggest day for flights leaving the UK since 2019 – we needed everything to go right. Unfortunately, it hasn’t.’

Dutch airline KLM has said that its flight handling is currently ‘impossible’.

Although they are working to get things up and running again, it has been forced to ‘largely’ suspend operations.

Manchester United’s ticket release has been delayed until midday due to the global IT outage.

The football club’s website is also currently unavailable and will remain so until the issue is resolved.

Banks in Germany and South Africa have experienced difficulties this morning, according to reports.

German banks are facing disruptions amid reports of global outages, a spokesperson for the Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft finanical industry association said.

South Africa’s Capitec Bank’s has seen services restored after experiencing significant disruptions across all its banking channels due to the global downtime incident, it said.

People travelling to the border crossing in Folkstone today have been told to expect delays.

In a post on X it admitted that its services had also been affected by the global crash and longer check-in times were likely.

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

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.

Cyber security expert Dan Card, from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, said people ‘should remain calm’ while businesses respond to the global IT outage.

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.’

Passengers have been stranded at the check-in desks at Gatwick Airport as its IT systems have been affected by the global IT outage.

One traveller 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.’

The Liberal Democrats have urged the Government to convene a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee to co-ordinate an urgent response to the major IT outage.

The party’s Cabinet Office spokesperson Christine Jardine said:

The Government must call an urgent Cobra meeting to address the chaos being caused by these IT outages across the country.

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.

Passengers in India have been given hand-written boarding passes as they struggle with the ongoing IT problems.

While at Dehli airport’s terminal 3, a man stands next to a white board updating the departure times manually for passengers.

Heathrow Airport has been affected by the global IT outage with flights being delayed.

A spokesperson said: ‘Flights are operational but we are experiencing delays.

‘We are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys.

‘Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.’

The organising committee for the Paris Olympics says its IT operations have also been impacted.

However, with just a week to go until the lavish boat procession down the River Seine, officials have said they have a ‘contingency plan in place’, according to Reuters news agency.

CBBC, the BBC’s TV channel for children, has been down since this morning.

A message that reads ‘Sorry! Something’s gone wrong’ is popping up instead of the usual content.

The broadcaster has said CBBC is its only channel affected with CBeebies and BBC One still on air.

Two hospitals in the cities of Luebeck and Kiel have been forced to cancel elective operations scheduled for today.

However, they claimed that patient care and emergency services will go ahead as normal.

American Airlines, which is the world’s biggest by passenger numbers, was forced to ground all its flight earlier today due to IT problems.

It has now blamed the US firm Crowdstrike as the source of the issue saying it is because of ‘technical issues with Crowdstrike that is impacting multiple carriers’.

The airline says its working with the IT security firm to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Poland’s largest container terminal, the Baltic Hub, has issued a statement to say it is ‘stuggling’ following the latest IT issues.

It has been forced to ask companies to not send containers to the port, which usually handles up to 2.9 million containers per year.

Pleased be advised that we are struggling at the Baltic Hub with a global Microsoft operating system outage that is hampering terminal operations.

A GP practice in Oxfordshire has asked patients with ‘routine concerns’ to wait until Monday amid an IT outage.

Writing on X, Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, said: ‘There is a nationwide outage of our booking system EMIS.

‘We’re continuing as normal for urgent enquiries but ask for routine concerns to wait until Monday.

‘Please continue to submit your queries through Engage Consult. Thank you.’

Train service information website National Rail Enquiries said there are ‘widespread IT issues across the entire network’.

Among the operators affected are Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway, Southern and Thameslink.

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.

Luton Airport said that a global IT outage is affecting some airlines and operations are continuing with manual systems.

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.

Owen Sayers, IT security advisor and former IT security consultant to the Home Office and Ministry of Justice has said:

This is what happens when the infrastructure that’s too big to fail, fails.

Today’s global outage of Microsoft is rapidly sending shockwaves across all sectors and shows once again – if proof were needed – that putting all our eggs into one huge world-spanning basket might not have been a good idea.

The irony of this is that the failure might not – this time – even be Microsoft’s fault, but is related to a Crowdstrike security update.

That a protective measure gone wrong has brought such instant chaos to so many countries and industry sectors might surprise many people, but the reality is that public Cloud infrastructure is both complex and surprisingly fragile.

The concern for UK citizens is that over the past 10 years the UK Government have moved core services directly on to these platforms.
Police, 999 services, health and the fabric of our society all sit on these Cloud, that were never designed for that use – but the purveyors of which were all too happy to allow to onboard.

The length of the outage and exact details of its cause and how to rectify it is still unclear – but one thing is for sure . We’re exposed like we’ve never been before and this is a heads up we’d be wise to pay attention to.

Barcodes on boarding passes at Gatwick airport are reportedly not working, leading attendate to have to check the tickets manually.

However, a BBC reporter has said that airport security is operating as normal.

Even football clubs have been affected, with  telling fans that its ticketing platform was malfunctioning.

New Zealand parliament has reported that their computer network is having problems.

The Metropolitan Police says it has not been affected by this morning’s IT issues and currently all systems are operating normally.

Customers at Australian supermarkets have been unable to buy their groceries at the checkouts as IT issues persist.

Bristol Water said it is experiencing company wide IT issues but the billing department remains operating.

On X, formerly Twitter, the company posted:

Please be aware we are experiencing company wide IT Issues – we are still able to take emergency calls at this time.

At the moment the billing department remain operating as usual.

Sorry for any inconvenience, we are working on getting back to normal as soon as possible.

Japan’s Narita airport, around 60km (37miles) from Tokyo, says airlines JetStar, Jeju Air, Qantas, HK Express and Spring Japan are having issues with their systems.

And in India, Delhi airport says some services have been temporarily impacted.

While in Berlin the airport posted on X that it is experiencing delays to check-ins due to a ‘technical fault’.

Sky News has just come back on air, after being offline for three hours.

Sky Sports Presenter Jacquie Beltrao has posted earlier on X saying: ‘We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying @SkyNews Breakfast.’

In the UK, bakery and coffee shop chain Gail’s is reporting problems.

A sign outside the window of its Swain’s Lane shop in London says it is unable to take in-store payments.

Users on social media have also reported being unable to make payments at other Gail’s outlets.

GP surgeries across the UK have been hit by the outages, as they claim the issue will will ‘have a big effect’.

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.

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.”

While Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said there is a ‘national issue’ with EMIS Web, the clinical computer system.

Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web – our clinical computer system.

This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.

We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption.

NHS England has been contacted for comment.

The London Stock Exchange is reportedly als experiencing technical glitches, after Microsoft reported an outage across its online services.

It said on its website this morning:

RNS news service is currently experiencing a 3rd party global technical issue, preventing news from being published on www.londonstockexchange.com.

Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the Group, including London Stock Exchange, continue to operate as normal.

Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – all four of Govia Thameslink Railway’s brands – said they were experiencing problems but were ‘actively investigating’ the issue.

It continued: ‘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.’

United, Delta and American Airlines have issued a ‘global ground stop’ on all of their flights.

Flights that are currently airborne will continue, but no further flights will take off for now.

Sky News has apologised for the disruption to its live broadcast on Friday morning, saying: We are working hard to restore all services.’

A Sky News spokesperson said in a statement:

Sky News has not been able to broadcast live TV this morning, we apologise for the interruption.

All the news is still available online, on the Sky News app, website, and across our social media accounts.

We are working hard to restore all services.

Passengers arriving at Gatwick airport have been faced with mammoth queues as IT system go down.

Edinburgh Airport’s automated boarding scanners have been the latest tech to go down following the global Microsoft issue.

One witness has reported that the Airport was checking boarding passes manually.

on top of this departure boards in the main terminal building appeared to freeze, showing out-of-date information about gate numbers and take off times – meaning some passengers have missed their flights.

Edinburgh airport spokesperson said passenger should expect longer waiting times.

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.