WASHINGTON — Microsoft users worldwide, including banks and airlines, reported widespread outages on Friday, hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Outages have been reported at these companies, according to Downdetector:
- Delta
- American Airlines
- United Airlines
- Visa
- Amazon
- ADT Security
The exact cause of the outage is still under investigation. By 6:30 a.m. ET, Microsoft said in an update that the "underlying cause of the issue has been fixed and several Microsoft 365 apps and services have been restored to full functionality."
The full statement is below:
Current status: The underlying cause of the issue has been fixed and several Microsoft 365 apps and services have been restored to full functionality. Residual impact is still affecting some Microsoft 365 apps and services, and Microsoft 365 engineering are continuing to conduct additional mitigation actions to provide relief. We're continuing to observe an increase in functionality and availability for the remaining impacted scenarios and we're monitoring this closely to ensure we're progressing towards full recovery. Microsoft is continuing to treat this event with the highest possible priority.
Scope of impact: This issue may be impacting any user attempting to use various Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Start time: Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 9:56 PM UTC
Preliminary root cause: A configuration change in a portion of our Azure backend workloads, caused interruption between storage and compute resources which resulted in connectivity failures that affected downstream Microsoft 365 services dependent on these connections.
The D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer said they were working with individual agencies "to ensure operations continue."
"At this time, District operations are not experiencing major impacts," they said in a statement to WUSA.
Services are impacted in the D.C. region:
Courts
All Maryland court systems and clerks offices are closed to the public, but open for emergencies.
DC Courts are not impacted by the outages.
Metro
Commuters were told to anticipate delays Friday morning. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) said in an X post around 5 a.m. that its website and some internal systems were down, which could impact rail and bus services.
But by 5:45 a.m. WMATA gave the all clear.
"All Metrorail stations opened on time & service is running as scheduled," the agency posted. "Bus is operating as scheduled."
The MetroAccess call center was also down, but Metro Transit Police were reachable by phone or text.
Department of Motor Vehicles
DC DMV systems are down as a result of the tech outage, but service centers are open. The self-service kiosks at the Fort Stanton and Takoma Rec Centers are working, and the Inspection Station on Half Street is being trouleshooted. People are being urged to call 311 for any updates on when systems will be back online Around 9:30 a.m., about a dozen or so people were standing in line waiting for the systems to come back online.
"In-person virtual hearings are still taking place at Adjudication Services," DC DMV posted.
Virginia's DMV customer service centers are closed, with no current ETA for when they will reopen.
"Online transactions are also unavailable," the agency said.
Emergency Services
Police departments across the region are reporting differing levels of impact by the outage.
DC Police told WUSA9 that they have been impacted by the outage, but would not offer further details. A spokesperson said they have found a way to operate normally, but could not say whether 911 services were affected.
Fairfax County Police Department said they have not been impacted by the outage.
Montgomery County authorities say 911 operations have not been impacted.
Arlington 911 is not reporting any issues.
Maryland Transit Authority
MTA reports customer service is down, but bus and train schedules have not been impacted.
"Maryland State transportation systems and Maryland systems at BWI are all working as intended, but specific airlines may have been affected by the incident and travelers should check with individual airlines for updates on any delays or cancellations," Gov. Wes Moore said. "Our 9-1-1 networks and first responder systems have remained resilient, and we continue to monitor all systems to ensure they are running at full capacity.
Hospitals
UMD Capitol Region Medical Center in Prince George's County told WUSA9 that they have been impacted by the system outage, but would not go into further detail.
All Inova sites are open and serving patients, but the hospital system said some of their systems were impacted by the outage.
Medstar said they were not impacted.
Airports
United Airlines, American Airlines and other flight service providers issued a ground stop for all flights Friday morning while they dealt with the Microsoft outage, causing delays, cancellations and long lines at all three of the region's airports.
"We’re aware of a technology issue with a vendor that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with the vendor to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," American Airlines said in a statement on social media.
United also chose to "hold all aircraft at their departure airports" due to a "third party software outage impacting computer systems."
"All Delta flights are paused as we work through a vendor technology issue," the airline wrote in a statement to WUSA. "Any customers whose flights are impacted will be notified by Delta via the Fly Delta app and text message."
By noon, officials at BWI Airport said things were improving, but impacts from the outage were ongoing and varied by airline.
"BWI Marshall airport administration leadership continues to be in very close contact with local airline station management," said Jonathan O. Dean, communications director at BWI. "Flights are operating, and the airlines continue their work to fully resume operations."
Social Security
Local social security offices are closed to the public, call times are delayed and some online services are unavailable.
Amtrak
A spokesperson for Amtrak told WUSA9 they don't know of any outages impacting local trips.
DC Water
DC Water says they are not experiencing any issues as a result of the outage.
This story is developing and we are working to gather more information. Check back regularly for more updates as we get them.