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A widespread Microsoft outage was disrupting flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world on Friday, including several impacts in the Chicago area.
Escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.
The website DownDetector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.
Here's what to know:
What happened?
The U.S. tech giant said late on Thursday that customers may experience issues with multiple services due to an outage.
According to a Microsoft web page tracking the status of its services, "users may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services." Issues are affecting apps including Microsoft Fabric, Teams, Purview, Defender, SharePoint and OneNote, according to the tracker.
Local
Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
The company did not respond to a request for comment. It did not explain the cause of the outage further.
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On Friday, Microsoft said a majority of services were recovered, according to CNBC. However, the company said that some customers may still experience issues in the region.
The chief executive of the cybersecurity company at the heart of the worldwide outage says it is working to fix a defect sent out in a Windows update.
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on the social platform X. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”
Kurtz said there was a defect in a “single content update for Windows hosts.” Mac and Linux hosts were not affected.
The company referred customers to its support portal for updates.
Flights, emergency services: What is impacted by the outage?
Across the U.S., the FAA said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded.
In the Chicago area, the outage appeared to be impacting several flights at O'Hare International Airport and Midway Airport.
Delta Airlines reported "all Delta flights are paused as we work through a vendor technology issue."
"Any customers whose flights are impacted will be notified by Delta via the Fly Delta app and text message. Customers should use the Fly Delta app for updates. We apologize for the inconvenience as our teams work through this issue. Reports indicated that other airlines may also be impacted," the airline said in a statement.
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."
"While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations," the airline said in a statement.
As of 5:30 a.m., some airlines began to see flights resuming, but residuals delays continued.
Baggage was seen piling up in O'Hare's Terminal 2 as delays and flight cancellations mounted.
Beyond flights, Illinois State Police reported the department was also experiencing technical issues during the outage, though 911 call services were still functioning.
What's happening globally?
Airlines, railways and television stations in the United Kingdom were being disrupted by the computer issues. The budget airline Ryanair, train operators TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink Railway, as well as broadcaster Sky News are among those affected.
Widespread problems were reported at Australian airports, where lines grew and some passengers were stranded as online check-in services and self-service booths were disabled. Passengers in Melbourne queued for more than an hour to check in.
“We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a global third party IT outage which is out of our control,’’ Ryanair said. “We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their scheduled departure time.”
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport said on its website that the outage was having a “major impact on flights” to and from the busy European hub. The outage came on one of the busiest days of the year for the airport, at the start of many people’s summer vacations.
In Germany, Berlin Airport said Friday morning that “due to a technical fault, there will be delays in check-in.” It said that flights were suspended until 10 a.m. (0800GMT), without giving details, German news agency dpa reported.
At Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport, some US-bound flights had posted delays, while others were unaffected.
Australian outages reported on the site included the banks NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo, and the airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as internet and phone providers such as Telstra.
News outlets in Australia — including the ABC and Sky News — were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels, and reported sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers. Some news anchors broadcast live online from dark offices, in front of computers showing “blue screens of death.”
Shoppers were unable to pay at some supermarkets and stores due to payment system outages.
The New Zealand banks ASB and Kiwibank said their services were down.
An X user posted a screenshot of an alert from the company Crowdstrike that said the company was aware of “reports of crashes on Windows hosts” related to its Falcon Sensor platform. The alert was posted on a password-protected Crowdstrike site and could not be verified. Crowdstrike did not respond to a request for comment.
