Photos show the chaos behind the global IT outage that's impacting retailers, flights, and hospitals
Alexandra Bacon
- A major global IT outage is disrupting flights, retailers, and media outlets among other businesses.
- It emerged after Microsoft reported problems with its online services.
Major airlines, banks, hospitals, and retailers are experiencing widespread disruptions linked to an IT outage after Microsoft reported problems with its online services, linked to an issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
Here are photos showing how the outage is affecting people and businesses worldwide.
Airlines, including United, Delta, and American, issued ground stops on Friday.
European airlines Ryanair and KLM are also among those to be impacted by the outage.
Edinburgh Airport in the UK and Berlin Airport in Germany have warned of delays.
Changi Aiport in Singapore — one of the world's busiest airports — said it was manually checking in the passengers of some airlines.
A spokesperson for Singapore's Changi Airport told BI: "Due to a global outage affecting IT systems of many organizations, the check-in process for some airlines at Changi Airport is being managed manually."
This included the "issuance of boarding passes," the spokesperson said.
Whiteboards are being used at Changi Airport’s Terminal 1.
Local media reports also showed long lines at Changi Airport's check-in counters.
Major UK airports have reported issues, with some warning of delays and disruption.
Major UK airports, Heathrow, Gatwick, and Luton, have all been affected.
Passengers flying with Ryanair at Stansted Airport in the UK face long lines.
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, warned of "disruption across the network due to a Global 3rd party IT outage which is out of our control" and is advising passengers to head to the airport early.
The issue is impacting airports globally, such as Hong Kong International Airport and Delhi International Airport in India.
A passenger at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad wrote on X that he had been issued a hand-written boarding pass by Indian airline IndiGo.
Business Insider was unable to verify his account. However, IndiGo confirmed on X that its booking, check-in, and access to boarding cards process was impacted by the outage.
Grocery stores, retailers, and fast-food giants have also been impacted.
Australian grocery store chain Woolworths told BI that some stores had "been impacted as a result of the global IT issue." However, all but six stores were open, while some had fewer checkouts functioning.
A banner on Woolworths' website as of Friday said that it's "experiencing intermittent technical difficulties instore and online."
A spokesperson for UK grocery store chain Morrisons told BI that the chain was experiencing payment issues in some stores.
Social media users said Waitrose, an upmarket UK grocery store chain, was only taking cash payments because card machines weren't working.
News outlets were also affected by the outage.
Sky News has been showing archive footage and briefly displayed an error message.
The news site appears to be up and running at the time of writing.
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