Several services have been affected in the country after the American tech giant, Microsoft, faced disruptions due to a software upgrade. A new Crowdstrike (cybersecurity software firm) update is being cited as the cause of the outage.
According to reports, affected Microsoft Windows users are encountering disruptions caused by Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors, causing their laptops and PCs to become stuck in a restart loop.
Here is what you need to know about the services affected in the country:
Airlines
Flight operations at several airports saw widespread disruptions following the outage of Microsoft's cloud services.
According to media reports, around 160 flights in different airports have been affected due to the outage.
Passengers were left facing delays at check-ins, boarding, and had to deal even with the cancellation of several flights, officials said.
The outage has affected several airlines, grounding planes and disrupting flight operations at Delhi and Mumbai airports, they added.
An Air India aircraft en route to San Francisco from Delhi Airport had to be diverted to Krasnoyarsk in Russia last night after the outage.
Speaking on the issue, an Air India spokesperson said the Microsoft outage has affected the airline's systems and their priority is to evacuate the passengers as early as possible.
"The airport (in Russia) is not well known and the passengers there are facing issues with immigration procedure. We have arranged a ferry aircraft to take them to the scheduled destination," the official told TNIE.
Meanwhile, at the Delhi Airport, the airlines ended up issuing handwritten boarding passes to the passengers, officials said.
However, it is still unclear whether the immigration services were impacted due to the outage.
Passengers at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru had a harrowing time following the disruption in flight services and were seen anxiously waiting for their delayed flights. A total of 26 flights departing from the airport, all operated by Indigo were cancelled.
The lounge of the KIA was overcrowded due to the disruption in flight services.
"A global outage with the Navitaire Departure Control System (NDCS) has been affecting operations of some airlines across their network, including BLR Airport since 10. 40 IST on July 19, 2024," a Bangalore International Airport Limited spokesperson said in a statement.
According to official sources from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, as many as 23 flights -- 12 departures and 11 arrivals -- including Indigo's flights to Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru have been cancelled.
Regular passenger-centric activities at the Chennai airport have also been affected, official sources said.
The airlines are continuously updating passengers about the situation and issued travel advisories in this regard asking passengers to report early to the airports to avoid delay in check-ins.
Five flights of IndiGo scheduled to depart from the two airports in Goa were also cancelled.
"Out of 27 IndiGo flights for the day, three flights (6E-589- Chennai, 6E-281- Ahmedabad, 6E-985- Hyderabad) were cancelled and all other flights of IndiGo and Air India Express were delayed by one to one-and-half hours," an official said.
IndiGo said its systems across the network are impacted.
"You may experience slower check-ins and longer queues. We are all hands on deck and are working relentlessly to restore stability and normalcy. Our digital team is also coordinating closely with Microsoft Azure to resolve these issues swiftly," the airline said.
Akasa Airlines announced that some of its online services will be temporarily unavailable at the Mumbai and Delhi airports, saying," Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable."
Spicejet said in a statement, “We're currently facing a technical issue in providing updates on flight disruptions. Our team is actively working to resolve this issue. We regret for any inconvenience caused and will update you once the issue is resolved. Thank you for your patience and cooperation."
Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu said his team is actively managing the crisis and requested the passengers to cooperate with the airport staff.
"We have instructed all airlines and airport authorities to keep passengers informed about their flight status and provide necessary assistance," Naidu said, adding that additional measures include regular updates on flight status and deployment of extra staff to assist passengers and address their concerns.
Banking
According to media reports, some users have been complaining of disruptions in the online services of the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bank of India, and HDFC Bank.
However, the SBI has clarified that their systems are unaffected by the global outage.
"We are all fine," its chairman Dinesh Khara told PTI, when asked about the impact of the global outage.
Trading
Several traders in India faced operational disruption as the Microsoft outage affected many brokerages, including 5paisa, IIFL Securities, and Angel One.
Others impacted by the widespread global computer outage include Motilal Oswal and Edelweiss Mutual Fund.
"Due to a global outage with Crowdstrike/Microsoft, offering a cyber security solution, our systems are affected," 5paisa announced on X (formerly Twitter).
Separately, Angel One said, "You may have experienced an intermittent issue due to a global outage faced by one of the solution providers".
Further, Edelweiss Mutual Fund, too, revealed about login issues on its website, owing to the outage.
Some brokerages later said systems have been restored and are up and running.
Meanwhile, amid reports of disruptions in the functioning of stock exchanges in several countries, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) said it has not been impacted by the global outage of Microsoft systems.
"NSE and NCL (NSE Clearing Ltd) are working normal today," the exchange's spokesperson said in a statement.
Applications
According to media reports, several Microsoft applications including Microsoft 365, Microsoft Team, and Microsoft Azure have been affected by the outage.
According to outage tracker website outage tracking website Downdetector, some users have also reported disruptions while using Instagram, Amazon and Gmail.
The IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed that the issue behind the outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve it.
"MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified, and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected," Vaishnaw wrote on social media.
(With inputs from PTI)
