Our live coverage has endedpublished at 16:15 British Summer Time 19 July
Our live updates have now ended.
You can read more on the situation at East Midlands Airport here, or follow events from the UK and around the world here.
Summary
A global IT outage is causing disruption at East Midlands Airport
About 20,000 passengers are expected at the airport on one of its busiest days of the year
Some processes like check-in and boarding are being done manually but no cancellations are anticipated
Most departures today have already taken place, an airport spokesperson says
However, the airport has said delays to remaining flights are possible
GP surgeries and hospitals in the region have also been affected
Our live coverage has endedpublished at 16:15 British Summer Time 19 July
Left-behind hens now on their way to Dublinpublished at 16:11 British Summer Time 19 July
Owen Shipton
BBC NewsGreat news...
Earlier we told you that a hen party due to fly to Dublin from East Midlands Airport had been split up due to the disruption.
Anna Hindmarsh told the BBC 13 people arrived on Friday morning to get a flight for her sister's four-day celebration.
The bride and six others were able to board the plane, but those with luggage to check in were delayed and missed their flight because their cases were being manually processed.
However, the remaining six - including the maid of honour - will now join them tonight after a long wait in the airport.
Holidaymakers stuck waiting to take offpublished at 15:46 British Summer Time 19 July
Owen Shipton
BBC News
Two holidaymakers said they were stuck on an aeroplane on the tarmac for an hour due to the global IT problems.
Peter Earl and Carole Macalister, from Boston in Lincolnshire, travelled from Palma, in Spain, to East Midlands Airport today.
Mr Earl said: "It wasn't good at all.
"[We were] stuck in Palma airport for over an hour, on the tarmac, on the aeroplane, instead of being inside. It wasn't very pleasant at all.
"It's down to the IT these days - everything is relying on it now. Your life is on your phone."
Ms Macalister added: "It was too hot on the plane to be sat for an hour."
Software outage may lead to UPS delayspublished at 15:32 British Summer Time 19 July
Samantha Noble
BBC News OnlineParcel delivery company UPS, which has an air hub at East Midlands Airport, said its computer systems were affected.
A spokesperson said it might cause delays with its service.
They said: "A third-party software outage is impacting some UPS computer systems in the US and Europe.
"At this time, our airline continues to operate effectively and our drivers are on the roads delivering for customers.
"We are continuing to work to resolve all issues as quickly as possible; there may be some service delays."
Image source, AirTeamImagesLeicester pharmacy 'managing' despite IT issuespublished at 15:20 British Summer Time 19 July
Samantha Noble
BBC News OnlineA pharmacy in Leicester has said it cannot download prescriptions.
Belgrave Pharmacy said it had been experiencing IT trouble all day but had found an alternative way to ensure people still got their prescriptions.
Pratik Patel, of Belgrave Pharmacy, said: "There are prescriptions that are not downloading but we are managing.
"It has not been chaotic."
Image source, GoogleHe said staff searched for prescriptions on another system, on the NHS portal.
"It will just be more paperwork on Monday but at least it works," he added.
Belgrave Pharmacy is in The Local Pharmacy group, external, which includes Pinfold Pharmacy in Loughborough and Skegby Pharmacy in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
Mr Patel said the other branches were affected, as they all used the same system.
East Midlands Airport disruption: What we knowpublished at 15:12 British Summer Time 19 July
Alex Smith
BBC News OnlineHere's a reminder of what's been happening:
- East Midlands Airport is one of a number of airports around the world affected by the global IT outage
- The disruption has coincided with one of the airport's busiest days of the year
- About 20,000 passengers are expected to pass through the airport today
- Some processes like check-in and boarding have been done manually, with no cancellations anticipated but delays are possible, according to the airport
- GP surgeries and hospitals in the region have also been affected
- Anti-virus firm Crowdstrike confirmed a bug in its software was to blame for IT issues on Microsoft devices across the world
- Recovery is expected to take some time, according to the company and IT experts
NHS in Derbyshire issue statement on outagepublished at 14:59 British Summer Time 19 July
Alex Smith
BBC News OnlineThe NHS Derby and Derbyshire integrated care board (ICB) has issued an update on the global IT outage.
It says some NHS services are impacted, and an issue with EMIS - an appointment and patient record system - is causing some disruption in some GP practices.
"The NHS has long standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP," it said.
"There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.
"Please be patient with your local NHS services while we are working to resolve the issue."
Delays to East Midlands Airport flights possiblepublished at 14:52 British Summer Time 19 July
Alex Smith
BBC News OnlineAccording to a new statement, issued by East Midlands Airport at 14:15, the outage "continues to affect some processes and systems".
"It also means that there could be delays to flights later in the day," a spokesperson added.
"Passengers are advised to check the status of their flight with their airline and allow more time to check-in at the airport.
"Those travelling with just hand luggage should make their way straight to security.
"We thank all passengers for their patience and understanding while we respond to this international incident."
Queues at check-in 'currently not very long'published at 14:42 British Summer Time 19 July
Owen Shipton
BBC NewsThis is the latest at East Midlands Airport's check-in gates, the queues are currently not very long.
By our calculations, 22 flights are still to take off from the airport today, with no major delays, according to the departures schedule.
Recovery could take time, warns tech bosspublished at 14:36 British Summer Time 19 July
Gavin Bevis
BBC NewsThe boss of cyber-security firm Crowdstrike has confirmed to NBC that the issue was caused by a bug in their update that hit Microsoft operating systems.
"We know what the issue is... and have resolved the issue," said George Kurtz.
Asked how long it would take for systems to return to normal, he told the US network: "It could be some time for some systems that just automatically won't recover, but it is our mission... to make sure every customer is fully recovered."
Baggage labels handwritten on flight to East Midlands Airportpublished at 14:26 British Summer Time 19 July
Samantha Noble
BBC News OnlineA passenger who flew to East Midlands airport today has said departing from Alicante in Spain was "absolute chaos".
Andrea Selby, of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, said: "There were queues from getting through the door.
"[There were] a lot of frayed tempers as a lot of people didn't know what to do.
"They have had to handwrite all the baggage, the cases."
She added: "Nothing electronic was working.
"I had to carry my case to the airport steps before it was taken off me. With being on my own, that was a struggle.
"Once on the plane, we had lost our slot so then had to wait an hour for another."
She said the heat was "stifling" on the plane.
She added once she arrived at East Midlands Airport, everything was "lovely" and they got "straight through".
Emergency planners meets in Leicestershirepublished at 14:17 British Summer Time 19 July
Dan Martin
BBC NewsLeicestershire Police has said it has not been directly affected by the IT problems, but said an emergency planning meeting had taken place on Friday morning.
A spokesperson for the force said: "We are working with our partners to assess how they have been impacted and are ready to provide additional resources to support them where necessary.
"The local resilience forum, consisting of all the major partners in Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, have also met this morning.
"Those who are impacted are putting provisions in place and will be keeping the public updated.
"Where needed, business continuity plans will be activated to ensure that disruption to services is kept to a minimum."
IT glitch final obstacle before fun in the sunpublished at 14:08 British Summer Time 19 July
Jack Tymon
BBC Radio DerbyCatching a flight from East Midlands Airport might not be straightforward today but once away, travellers have a variety of sun-drenched adventures to look forward to.
Shortly before news of the outage broke, I spoke to Ryan and George who were due to jet off to Marbella for the weekend to celebrate the 30th birthday of Ryan's girlfriend's cousin.
Ryan said: "The birthday girl's got a whole itinerary planned out - PDF forms and everything."
Recovery from global IT issues 'will take time'published at 13:59 British Summer Time 19 July
Olimpia Zagnat
BBC News Online
Image source, Dr Ismini VasileiouDe Montfort University associate professor Dr Ismini Vasileiou, who is an expert in cyber-security and IT, has told the BBC that it "will take time" to recover from today's global IT problems.
Dr Vasileiou, who is the director for the East Midlands Cyber Security Cluster, said: "Organisations need to have a plan for recovery to minimise disruption."
To prevent disruption of this scale in the future, Dr Vasileiou has given her three most important tips:
- Regular software updates
- Thorough testing
- Robust incident response
Airport chaos around the world after global IT outagepublished at 13:50 British Summer Time 19 July
Alex Smith
BBC News OnlineMoving away from the East Midlands and the UK for a moment, this video shows the situation in countries like Spain, the Netherlands and India, as disruption following the global IT outage continues.
In pictures: Teams work around IT glitch at airportpublished at 13:43 British Summer Time 19 July
Gavin Bevis
BBC NewsHere are some more photos of nervous travellers hoping they will be able to get away on their holidays on time despite the ongoing IT issues at East Midlands Airport.
The airport says although check-in is taking longer, no cancellations are anticipated.
IT problems will take 'days' to fixpublished at 13:34 British Summer Time 19 July
Joe Tidy
Cyber correspondentCyber-security experts are warning that, although there is now a software fix, it’s going to take a huge amount of work to get computers back up and running.
Crowdstrike's bad software causes systems to "blue screen" and crash, which means they can't restart to get the good update on to computers.
Researcher Kevin Beaumont said: "As systems no longer start, impacted systems will need to be started in 'safe mode', to remove the faulty update.
"This is incredibly time-consuming and will take organisations days to do at scale. Essentially we have one of the world's highest impact IT incidents caused by a cyber-security vendor."
Flights on schedule despite glitchpublished at 13:27 British Summer Time 19 July
Gavin Bevis
BBC NewsA look at the departures board on the East Midlands Airport website should offer a certain amount of reassurance for any travellers worried about whether their flight will get away on time today.
It appears the vast majority of this afternoon's flights are running to schedule despite warnings that check-in is taking longer than usual.
Image source, East Midlands AirportHospital 'not directly affected' by IT outagepublished at 13:15 British Summer Time 19 July
Gavin Bevis
BBC NewsWe've had an update from the trust that runs Bassetlaw Hospital in Nottinghamshire.
It said: "We can confirm that we believe that Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is not directly affected and all of our core systems are running normally.
"We are taking some immediate precautionary action by double checking our systems for direct or indirect use of the Crowdstrike software and assessing any impact.
"We are also working with system partners to offer support regionally if required.
"We'll continue to monitor the situation as it develops. Please attend appointments as scheduled."
UK government working to offer support amid problemspublished at 13:03 British Summer Time 19 July
Vicki Young
Deputy Political EditorDowning Street says it recognises the disruption that today's IT outage is having across the country, and government departments are working closely with relevant companies and industries to offer support.
Officials covering various sectors have met in the emergency Cobra unit and they are updating ministers.
The prime minister's deputy official spokeswoman said that according to a statement from Crowdstrike, this was not a security incident and a "fix had been deployed".
She added there had been no impact on 999 services and she wasn't aware of anything impacting normal government business. Ministers will continue to monitor the situation.