Infra
Microsoft global IT outage: Dozens more flights cancelled as recovery tool released
![Microsoft global IT outage: Dozens more flights cancelled as recovery tool released Microsoft global IT outage: Dozens more flights cancelled as recovery tool released](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/21/07/SEI213509197.jpg?quality=75&width=1200&auto=webp)
Dozens more holiday flights have been cancelled across the UK, resulting in a third day of travel chaos for airline passengers following CrowdStrike’s botched software update.
After hundreds of flights were grounded by the global Microsoft IT outage on Friday, knock-on delays have continued through the weekend, with easyJet so far cancelling 24 flights at London Gatwick and British Airways cancelling a dozen flights at London Heathrow on Sunday.
It comes as Microsoft released a recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by the glitch after the company disclosed that 8.5 million devices were affected. The tool is designed to aid in quickly recovering impacted machines via a bootable USB drive.
Meanwhile, the Australian home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, revealed on Sunday that CrowdStrike has told the federal government it is “now close to rolling out an automatic fix”, which would enable systems to return online.
However, IT experts have warned it could take weeks for global tech infrastructure to fully recover.
The massive disruption has included thousands of flight delays and cancellations. Hospitals, GPs, pharmacies, banks, supermarkets and millions of businesses have also been impacted.
In pictures: Passengers waiting at airports after IT outages caused long queues across world
![Passengers waiting at Edinburgh Airport as the outages led to long queues at airports](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/20/17/093ecff699d943aa8d56b7e62691cd9cY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzIxNTc3NzU5-2.76890978.jpg)
![Queues of passengers at the Air Asia check-in counters at Don Mueang Airport international departures on Saturday in Bangkok, Thailand](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/21/11/2162730929.jpg)
![Customers wait in line at a departure area for Spirit Airlines at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Friday](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/20/18/d63112843b1a46dd87e22448047d12c3.jpg)
Tara Cobham22 July 2024 05:00
Over 1,500 US flights cancelled for third straight day
More than 1,500 flights were cancelled for the third straight day in the US yesterday amid a global tech outage due to Crowdsource’s botched software update.
Thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports across the US as nearly 1,600 flights travelling within or out of the US were cancelled, and about 8,500 delayed on Sunday, data from flight tracking website FlightAware.com suggests.
Delta Air Lines chief Ed Bastian said the company is still working to recover its system and restore operations.
“Canceling a flight is always a last resort, and something we don’t take lightly,” Mr Bastian said.
Vishwam Sankaran22 July 2024 04:31
CEO of Crowdstrike confirms issue ‘not a security or cyber incident’
The CEO of Crowdstrike, the company at the centre of the global IT outage, confirmed that the issue affecting millions of Windows devices “was not a security or cyber incident”.
Posting on the social media platform X on Friday afternoon, George Kurtz said: “Our customers remain fully protected.”
Tara Cobham22 July 2024 04:00
GPs need time to recover from global IT outage, warns BMA
Normal GP service “cannot be resumed immediately” after Friday’s global IT outage caused a “considerable backlog”, the British Medical Association has warned.
The trade union for doctors said GPs would “need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend”, adding that NHS England should “make clear to patients” this was the case.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said its GP committee would continue to talk to NHS England and patient record system supplier EMIS to secure a “better system of IT backup” to ensure the “disaster” was not repeated.
Tara Cobham22 July 2024 03:00
Recap: Watch as Sky News malfunctions amid Microsoft outage affecting millions
Tara Cobham22 July 2024 02:00
What would really happen if we were hit by a complete tech wipeout?
It is something the former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, warned of when he made the case for us to all think about how prepared we are for prolonged disruption during a cyberattack. While, George Kurtz, the founder and chief executive of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, has made it clear there was no possibility that this power outage was a cyber-attack it has certainly focussed our minds.
It is also a reminder of the smash Netflix hit Leave the World Behind which pondered the stark, post-apocalyptic depiction of the immediate aftermath of an attack. In the movie, the first time anyone notices that something is wrong is when they discover their mobile phone coverage is out, and their wifi disappears, but it takes a push notification on their TV screens for the characters to learn that an attack has been launched.
Chris Stokel-Walker reports:
Tara Cobham22 July 2024 01:00
The IT outage proves we can’t simply turn the internet off and on again
It’s our powerlessness that is so shocking. This morning, millions of people were left staring at a blue computer screen bearing a glum emoji and the message: “Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart. We’re just collecting some error info, and then we’ll restart for you.”
This “blue screen of death” was not selective. Supermarkets, banks, airlines, hospitals – these and many more businesses, organisations and individuals across the globe, rich and poor, were caught up in the chaos. For hours, the world effectively more or less halted as Microsoft customers using Windows 10 suffered an IT outage.
Apparently it was caused by a glitch in an update issued by CrowdStrike – ironically, a cybersecurity firm. It took a while, but they reported that if customers deleted the update and restarted their computer, normality could quickly be restored.
![](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/19/10/SEI213391170.jpg?quality=75&width=1200&auto=webp)
The IT outage proves we can’t simply turn the internet off and on again
Friday’s global computer shutdown – which closed banks, grounded flights and left hospitals unable to carry out operations – has been billed as the most serious the world has ever seen. We should view it as a timely warning, and rethink our relationship with the web, says Chris Blackhurst
Tara Cobham22 July 2024 00:00
Watch: Huge airport queues seen on Saturday as global IT outage causes chaos at Heathrow
Tara Cobham21 July 2024 23:00
BMA warns normal GP service ‘cannot be resumed immediately’
The British Medical Association has warned that normal GP service “cannot be resumed immediately” after the global IT outage caused a “considerable backlog”.
Dr David Wrigley, deputy chairman of GPC England, the representative body for GPs at the BMA, said: “Friday was one the toughest single days in recent times for GPs across England. Without a clinical IT system many were forced to return to pen and paper to be able to serve their patients.
“While GPs and their teams worked hard to look after as many as they could, without access to the information they needed much of the work has had to be shifted into the coming week.
“GPs have been pulling out all the stops this weekend to deal with the effects of Friday’s catastrophic loss of service and, as their IT systems come back online, we thank them and their staff for their hard work under exceptionally trying circumstances.
“We also thank patients for bearing with general practice in this unprecedented situation.
“The temporary loss of the EMIS patient record system has meant a considerable backlog.
“Even if we could guarantee it could be fully fixed on Monday, GPs would still need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend, and NHSE (National Health Service England) should make clear to patients that normal service cannot be resumed immediately.
“The BMA’s GP committee will continue our dialogue with both EMIS and NHSE, both to make sure that the coming week can be used to recover as quickly as possible and to urgently work on securing a better system of IT backup so that this disaster is not repeated in future.”
Tara Cobham21 July 2024 22:00
Who is CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz?
On Friday, tech outages swept the world from hospitals and airlines, to banks and courts. Flights were grounded, payments delayed and hospitals across the world reported problems.
Crowdstrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, later issued a statement reassuring customers that the outage was not “a security incident or cyber attack.”
Tara Cobham21 July 2024 21:00