Belfast airport releases new statement after being hit by major computer outage which brought world to a halt

Whitehall crisis officials are co-ordinating the response to the major IT outage hitting airlines, train companies and banks. 
The Cobra system that deals with matters of national emergency or major disruption has been fired up, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said. 
Ministers are in touch with their sectors to tackle the fallout from the IT failures, with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh saying she is working “at pace with industry” after trains and flights ground to a halt. 
Businesses and institutions around the globe have been knocked offline by the outage, believed to have been caused by a faulty update to widely used cybersecurity software. 
In the UK, transport networks have been thrown into chaos, GP surgeries are unable to book appointments or access patient records and Sky News went off air. 
Restaurants in Parliament appear to be affected too, with catering services only accepting cash payments. 
Mr McFadden, who is in charge of the Whitehall machine, said on X: “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.” 
It came after the Liberal Democrats demanded ministers convene an urgent meeting of the Cobra emergency committee. 
The party’s 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.” 
Train companies are reporting delays and there are long queues at airports such as Gatwick, Luton and Edinburgh. 
Transport Secretary Ms Haigh tweeted: “We are aware of IT failures impacting several transport operators and terminals today, and we’re working at pace with industry and across Government on the issue. 
“There are no known security issues at present.”

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, CrowdStrike president George Kurtz said the problem was caused by a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts”. 
He said: “This is not a security incident or cyber attack. 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.” 
Mr Kurtz said the issue was not affecting Mac or Linux software.

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 told the PA news agency. 
“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.” 
Mr Seddon said there had been some people getting “agitated” in the queue but overall travellers had remained calm.

A spokeswoman for easyJet, the UK’s biggest airline by passenger numbers, advised customers travelling from Spanish airports to arrive three hours before their flight due to the IT outage. 
She said: “EasyJet’s IT systems have not been directly affected by the Microsoft systems issues this morning, however we are aware that some airports’ systems have been impacted across Europe. 
“This has led to some disruption to flights this morning and we expect some further potential impact to flights today. 
“Customers should expect longer than usual airport queues and we are advising customers travelling from Spanish airports to arrive three hours before their flight. 
“We advise customers due to travel with us today to continue to check the latest updates on their flight on easyJet’s Flight Tracker before making their way to the airport. 
“Although outside of our control, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”

Translink said they are on high alert surrounding the outages, “Translink is not currently affected by this outage but we continue to monitor our IT systems,” a spokesperson said. 

The PSNI have said they have experienced ‘no issues thus far’.

London Gatwick airport said “passengers may experience some delays” due to the global outage. 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.”

Sky News has been knocked off air. On Friday morning, a statement on their online page, YouTube and TV channel says: “We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.”

Ryanair has warned of “potential disruptions across the network” due to a global third party system outage.

On the airline’s website, it posted: “Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global 3rd party system outage.

“Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.

“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 affects all airlines operating across the network.”

Overnight, IT giant Microsoft confirmed it was investigating an “issue” with its 365 apps and operating systems, and although it said it had recovered some services, warned that the issue was ongoing and users should expect “service degradation” according to a status page on its website.
According to cyber security expert Troy Hunt, an IT issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike was causing much of the outage.
Around the world, banks, supermarkets and other major institutions reported computer issues disrupting services, with some airlines warning of delays and some airports grounding flights.