A massive global IT failure has caused widespread disruptions across various sectors, including airlines, banks, telecom providers, broadcast networks, and supermarkets, paralyzing their online operations.
Major U.S. airlines such as Delta, United, and American Airlines were forced to halt flights on Friday morning due to a technical communication problem, as reported by CNN.
Witnesses at Edinburgh Airport in Scotland noted that passengers struggled with automated boarding pass scanners, which displayed a “server offline” message, according to Sky News.
In the UK, Govia Thameslink Railway, which operates Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express, and Great Northern, also suffered significant IT outages affecting their services.
Australian telecom giant Telstra Group has been similarly impacted by the disruption, with service interruptions reported across their network.
Entrepreneurng observed that Sky News experienced a brief off-air period due to the outages, with an apology message displayed to viewers: “We apologise for the interruption to this broadcast. We hope to restore the transmission of Sky News shortly.”
In India, AFP reported that three airlines faced extensive IT issues, while flights at Berlin Brandenburg Airport were suspended due to technical problems. All airports in Spain also reported IT outages, causing widespread travel chaos.
The Guardian UK has linked the global disruption to issues with Windows workstations, and Microsoft 365 users experienced difficulties accessing cloud-based applications on Friday.
