Phantasialand: Microsoft outage hid pool chlorine fault, 15 guests hurt

What happened at the hotel pool

Fifteen guests at the Hotel Ling Bao, part of the Phantasialand leisure park in Brühl near Cologne, were hurt on Friday, 13 November, after swimming in a pool whose chlorine content had risen far above the norm. Guests complained of irritated airways and nausea, which brought rescue services and the fire brigade to the hotel. Tests carried out by the emergency crews found a defect in the automatic dosing system, which had caused a clearly excessive chlorine level. The pool was closed straight away, and the water was drained and replaced.

Why the alarm never reached staff

The dosing system is designed to report any chlorine reading outside the normal range, but it sends those alerts only by email. Phantasialand told WDR on Saturday, 14 November, that a disruption to Microsoft's Outlook mail service meant the warnings never arrived. As a result, nobody at the resort knew that the system had already flagged the problem. The incident happened on Friday, 13 November, while the mail disruption was still under way.

Medical care and cleanup

The fire brigade said four people were taken to hospital: one with a moderate injury, who stayed under observation, and three with slight injuries. The other affected guests were examined on site by an emergency doctor. An early report had said five guests were taken to hospital, but the figure was corrected to four. The fire brigade told WDR that the pool was back in operation once the water had been replaced.

Guests affected15

Taken to hospital4

Guests affected

15 people

Taken to hospital

4 people

Data from the article text

The wider Microsoft outage

Blick reported that the Microsoft disruption began on the evening of Thursday, 12 November, and affected hospitals, courts and banks in 74 countries. Outlook and Teams were among the services that failed, and many offices had to fall back on paper and old fax machines. Microsoft restored the services on Saturday, 14 November, according to the same report. At the Phantasialand, the outage meant that a technical safety warning sent by email went unseen.

Timeline of the incident

Guests began to feel unwell after using the pool on Friday, 13 November, and complaints quickly brought rescue services and the fire brigade to the hotel. Thirteen guests initially reported airway irritation, and the number of people affected rose to 15. The count of four hospital cases followed a correction of an earlier figure of five. On Saturday, 14 November, Phantasialand confirmed the link to the Microsoft outage, and the pool was reopened after the water had been replaced.