Government holds emergency Cobra meeting after 'most serious IT outage' in history parks global chaos with planes and trains grounded, GPs in mayhem | 19 July 2024 | The 'most serious IT outage the world has ever seen' sparked global chaos today - with planes and trains halted, the NHS disrupted, shops closed, football teams unable to sell tickets and banks and TV channels knocked offline. Officials have held an emergency COBRA* meeting after a devastating technical fault [?] caused Microsoft's Windows software to suddenly shut down, prompting departure boards to immediately turn off at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Edinburgh on the busiest day for British airports since Covid. NHS England said patients should attend GP appointments unless informed otherwise due to problems with the system used to schedule appointments, while train passengers have been told to expect delays due to "widespread IT issues across the entire network." With more than a thousand flights cancelled globally, passengers were seen sleeping in passageways at Los Angeles International Airport, huge queues formed at terminals across Spain, and in Delhi, staff set up a makeshift whiteboard to record departures. [*According to Collins Dictionary: in the UK: "Cabinet Office Briefing Room A: the civil contingencies committee that leads the UK's responses to crises such as terrorist attacks and epidemics."]