Huge queues snaked through Gatwick Airport as passengers struggle to check in because of a major global IT outage on Friday, 19 July. Lines of at least 50 metres formed and staff unpacked boxes of bottled water for travellers. The chaos ensued after a worldwide Windows glitch took much of the world’s infrastructure offline.
Flights were grounded and TV channels including Sky News were taken off air. In a statement, Microsoft said a resolution for Windows devices was “forthcoming”. It said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third party software platform.
We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”.