A massive and unprecedented internet outage hit the world Friday, wreaking havoc in the Chicago area as it grounded flights, downed systems for businesses and hospitals and impacted government agencies.
The disruption started with CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide. The company says the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
Despite CrowdStrike saying a fix was on the way, chaos deepened hours after the problem was first detected.
Here's a look at what happened in the Chicago area:
Why are flights canceled and what can you do?
Across the U.S., the FAA said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant were grounded Friday morning.
In the Chicago area, the outage appeared to be impacting several flights at O'Hare International Airport and Midway Airport. Just before noon, more than 250 flights were canceled at O'Hare and 11 canceled at Midway.
Delta Airlines reported all flights were "paused as we work through a vendor technology issue." American Airlines said it was "aware of a technology issue" that was "impacting multiple carriers." United Airlines said the outage was "impacting computer systems worldwide."
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"While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations," United said in a statement.
By 5:30 a.m., some airlines began to see flights resuming, but ongoing delays continued for hours.
Some airlines started offering waivers for travelers.
Midway Airport warned of longer lines and wait times due to the issues.
At O'Hare, massive piles of baggage started accumulating in Terminal 2. Long lines were seen at the airport's Baggage Service counter.
What about Ventra, CTA and Metra?
Railways and transit systems were being impacted across the globe.
In Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority said it has not seen service impacts from the outage, but its Ventra app did see some problems.
"Bus and rail services are still running and were not impacted by the Microsoft outage. Ventra experienced some outage overnight that would have affected customers wanting to add value to via the mobile app and then at the machines as well, but both instances have been resolved and operations are running normally. We will continue to monitor the system for changes," the agency said.
Metra also noted its Ventra app services were experiencing issues. The rail agency also saw delays on some lines due to "a communication issue" stemming from the outage.
A spokesperson for Metra said the outage impacted the agency's Union Pacific lines, with three cancellations on the UP-Northwest line, along with delays of up to 45 minutes.
Did the outage impact Starbucks ordering?
Many Starbucks customers started reporting ordering issues during the outage.
The company itself hasn't acknowledged the problems, but many who attempted to order on their app noted the service was not operating.
What if I got a 'blue screen of death'?
Many Microsoft users experienced an error commonly referred to as the as the "blue screen of death," amid persisting widespread tech outages.
Microsoft said it was aware of the issue and told affected users to "restore their Windows 365 Cloud PC to a known good state prior to the release of the update (July 19, 2024)." Users can check the provided online instructions for details on how to do that.
In a separate update, CNBC reported, Microsoft said users may enter what is known as the blue screen of death "and get stuck in a restarting state."
"We have received reports of successful recovery from some customers attempting multiple Virtual Machine restart operations on affected Virtual Machines," the company said.
"The affected update has been pulled by CrowdStrike. Customers that are continuing to experience issues should reach out to CrowdStrike for additional assistance."
Are DMVs closed?
Illinois DMVs were impacted by the outage, with Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias urging people to call before visiting a DMV.
Giannoulias said the outage "may impact operating hours or services (including road tests)."
In Indiana, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles said it too was impacted.
"Currently, we are unable to process transactions," the bureau wrote on X.
What's happening with hospitals?
The University of Chicago Medical Center said its computer systems and servers were disconnected due to the outage.
"These connections are being restored as we speak and most critical clinical and operational systems are now back online. We expect restoration to continue over the next several hours," the medical system said in an alert.
Other hospital systems including Rush University Medical Center and Sinai Chicago also reported experiencing some issues, but little impacts for patients.
What else isn't working?
Illinois government operations "are currently experiencing disruptions due to a global technology outage affecting CrowdStrike," state officials said.
"This outage has impacted several public-facing online systems, causing interruptions in service. The State is working diligently on restoration and minimizing the impact on the public," a statement read. "All efforts are being made to resolve the issue as swiftly as possible to ensure the continuity of state operations and public services."
Illinois State Police reported the department was also experiencing technical issues during the outage, though 911 call services were still functioning.
Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications said its operations "were not affected by the software outage."
"All emergency operations, including 911 call intake and dispatch of police and fire services, continued as normal. Non-emergency operations that were affected were impacted for a short period and have since been restored or are currently in the process of being restored," the office told NBC Chicago.
How long will the outage last?
Disruptions on Friday have continued hours after CrowdStrike first identified the issue. But both the company and Microsoft say that they're working to get systems back online.
In an emailed statement, Crowdstrike said that it was “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts" — adding that a fix “had been deployed” for the identified issue.
Microsoft 365 posted on social media platform X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
Spokesperson Frank X. Shaw later added that the company was “actively supporting customers to assist in their recovery.” Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft are also appearing to engage IT personnel on official online channels, such as Reddit.
How to reboot in safe mode?
Many users began searching for how to reboot their laptops in "safe mode" during the outage.
"Safe mode starts Windows in a basic state, using a limited set of files and drivers. If a problem doesn't happen in safe mode, this means that default settings and basic device drivers aren't causing the issue. Observing Windows in safe mode enables you to narrow down the source of a problem, and can help you troubleshoot problems on your PC," according to Microsoft support.
