Huge queues snaked through Gatwick Airport as passengers struggle to check in because of a major global IT outage on Friday, 19 July.

Lines of at least 50 metres formed and staff unpacked boxes of bottled water for travellers.

The chaos ensued after a worldwide Windows glitch took much of the world’s infrastructure offline.

Flights were grounded and TV channels including Sky News were taken off air.

In a statement, Microsoft said a resolution for Windows devices was “forthcoming”.

It said: “We are aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming.”