Flights, trains, TV shows, banks and retailers have all been paused amid a major global IT outage.
Flights have been grounded and TV shows pulled from the air after a major Microsoft glitch that started late on Thursday. Airlines including Frontier, Allegiant and SunCountry grounded flights overnight as Sky News and other TV companies pulled shows from the air.
All four of Govia Thameslink Railway’s brands – Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern – posted on social media: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network. Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem.
“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.”
GTR carries more passengers and has more trains and staff than any other operator in Britain. Problems have been reported across the US and UK, in India, in Australia and in New Zealand.
Retailers have also reported problems, including Woolworths and 7-Eleven in Australia. As well as customers unable to access bank accounts, there have been reports of problems accessing everything from Facebook to Netflix.
Microsoft said its outage started at about 11pm last night UK time, hitting its Azure and 365 cloud service and apps used by multiple companies. It says the problem has been resolved and services are coming back online.
The flight problem primarily hit the USA, with the Federal Aviation Administration asking airlines to pause flights until the technology could be restored. In the UK Sky News presenter Jacquie Beltrao took to Twitter to explain the problem.
She said: “We’re obviously not on air – we’re trying.” Sky isn’t the only news outlet to be hit by technical struggles as a corrupt Microsoft Windows anti-virus update caused a series of glitches.
Other major networks to face issues include SBS, ABC and Network 10. Sky News Australia team is also experiencing exactly the same glitches.
It has reportedly been sparked by a faulty update to the antivirus program CrowdStrike, a US cyber security company used by many British brands. The aftermath has seen banks, IT firms and airlines crash too.
The first viewers knew of the problem was when they tried to tune into the show as usual at 6am this morning. Instead of seeing any action, they were met with a message on the screen reading: “We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.”
The broadcaster then resorted to playing an old Windrush documentary, as the channel continued to face struggles. It comes as Microsoft has published on its own social media account that it is investigating “an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services”.
Some have also had frustrations with their computers, taking to the internet to complain.