Ryanair, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, and even Windows 10 PCs struck DOWN in global IT meltdown

Budget airline Ryanair, Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as Windows 10 PCs have all been struck by a disastrous IT outage that's impacted millions of people worldwide.

Independent website DownDetector, which tracks social media activity to monitor when online services are experiencing difficulties, has reported sudden spikes in problems with popular services, like Microsoft 365, banking apps from Santander and Lloyds TSB, as well as booking systems with Ryanair and Wizz Air.

The mass IT outage impacts millions across the UK, but spreads as far as Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan, with telecom giant Telstra already reporting issues.

It's unclear exactly what's causing this disastrous IT meltdown, but security experts have started to point the finger at Crowdstrike — a popular anti-virus solution that appears to be behind some of the issues.

Laptops and desktop PCs powered by Windows 10 have been stuck by the infamous error screen colloquially known as the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD). Those struck down by this error have reported being unable to reboot their machine to resolve the error, which also seems to be related to the Crowdstrike issues.

Ryanair has warned those with upcoming flights about “potential disruptions across the network” due to a global third-party system outage. Sharing an update on its website, the budget carrier posted: "Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global 3rd party system outage. Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.

"We advise passengers to arrive at the airport 3 hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions. We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this 3rd party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network."

Microsoft has issued a similar update, reassuring customers who rely on services like Microsoft 365 that teams are investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access apps and services.

“Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” the Redmond-based company shared on X, formerly Twitter, this morning. “We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”

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