CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A widespread Microsoft outage that disrupted flights, banks, government agencies, media outlets and companies around the world on Friday trickled into local systems as well.
Major disruptions reported by airlines and airports grew as the outage permeated the nation. The FAA said the airlines United, American, Delta and Allegiant were all grounded due to the issue.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport said at 9:58 a.m. that some airlines have resumed operations after the global ground stop. Passengers can expect delays and cancellations throughout the day and extended wait times due to the ground stop. Passengers are encouraged to contact their airlines directly before going to the airport.
The North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles was also seriously impacted by the outages. Systems were down at all license and license plate offices across the state. Many people were turned away and waited outside Charlotte branches.
The NCDMV resumed services around 1:45 p.m., although many license plate offices remained closed.
WCNC Charlotte is keeping a running list and its status for people wondering what they can and cannot do:
- 911 and 311 services in Charlotte are working
- Charlotte Water's website and online services returned around 2 p.m. The agency said it would not carry out any service disconnections on Friday due to the lengthy outage.
- North Carolina DMV are once again operational and services have resumed as of around 1:45 p.m. Friday. Prior to that, offices were unable to help customers at all
NCDMV Driver License offices and License Plate Agencies statewide. - Novant Health website is up, but its phone lines appear to be down
- Atrium Health website is up, but its phones appear to be connected
- Truist, Bank of America and Wells Fargo websites are all functioning
- ATM services for First Citizens, Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Truist are all working
- The city of Charlotte confirmed all city websites were back up around 11:30 a.m. Friday.
- The CATS website became operational again around 1:45 p.m.
- American Airlines' connections are re-established
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport is experiencing multiple delays and cancellations due to the widespread issues. They advised people to not come to the airport unless they confirmed their flight was on time.
- City of Gastonia and the city of Concord web services appear to be working
- Duke Energy web services are functioning
- Cabarrus County web services appear to be working after being down
- Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools' technology services is working to resolve issues encountered
- OrthoCarolina said some locations and practitioners were experiencing disruptions based on the outage, and anyone with impacted appointments would be contacted directly to reschedule.
WCNC Charlotte Reporter Richard DeVayne was at the airport Friday morning to speak to travelers about their travel woes when he spotted Charlotte City Councilmember Tiawana Brown who was on her way to Atlanta. She was unaware the city's website was down since the council is on recess. She was horrified to see how many people were at the airport.
"This right here is ludicrous," Brown told DeVayne. "I thought I was coming early. Oh my goodness, it's bad. It's real bad."
Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
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