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PHILADELPHIA - A global technology outage on Friday morning grounded flights, knocked banks offline and media outlets off-air in a massive disruption that affected companies and services around the world.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack — and that a fix was on the way. It added that the problem happened when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows.
Philadelphia wasn't impervious to the widespread technology outage. Philadelphia International Airport experienced several delays and cancelations and the Philadelphia Court system was forced to close for the day.
Philadelphia International Airport
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Philadelphia International Airport impacted by global tech outage
Philadelphia International Airport spokesperson Heather Redfern explains how a global technology outage is impacting travel at the airport, and what travelers should know as airlines slowly begin to resume operations.
Hoards of travelers crowded Philadelphia International Airport on Friday morning, with more than a dozen disruptions reported at the airport, and over 1,200 cancelations nationwide.
"Last night, Frontier had some issues impacting their flights and early this morning they seemed to be back up and running, but then it started hitting other airlines," Heather Redfern, an airport spokesperson, told FOX 29.
"American, Delta and United were in a ground stop earlier this morning, American went back to service at about 5 a.m., they are resuming their operations just like United but it will take time to get back up and running on a regular schedule."
Global tech outage slows travel at Philadelphia International Airport
Travelers in Philadelphia and around the world are experiencing widespread delays as part of a Microsoft outage that also disrupted banks, media outlets and companies around the world on Friday.
Redfern said the outage will cause a "snowball effect" as crews scramble to clear the logjam of flights, which she says could take days to resolve. The airport is urging travelers to keep tabs on flights through their airlines and still encouraging people to come to the airport despite the disruptions.
United, in a statement posted on X, said it will begin to resume "some" flights, but residual disruptions are expected throughout the day Friday. The airline said it has issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans via their website.
"Definitely check with your airline first, if it doesn't say anything, I would come to the airport," Redfern said. "The lines are long, it might work itself out now that American and United are starting to come back to their operations."
Philadelphia Courts
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Major global outage hits airlines, banks, businesses – what to know
Growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta have been reported. Here's what Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said about the issue.
All First Judicial District Courts and offices in Philadelphia were forced to close Friday due to the outage. According to a statement, all cases that were scheduled for Friday will be rescheduled and will be posted on their website starting Monday.
Those who were summoned for jury duty have been excused Friday, according to the courts.
Penn Medicine
Penn Medicine said the widespread outage has impacted appointments in some locations. In a statement posted to its website, Penn Medicine said that anyone whose appointment is canceled will receive a text message or phone call with more information.
They added that all Penn Medicine Hospitals, including the emergency department, are "fully staffed and continuing to care for patients."
Virtua Health
South Jersey's largest health system, Virtua Health, said it's "implemented its backup systems and policies to enable both hospital and outpatient services to continue safely and with minimal interruption."
In a statement, the health network added their records system and patient portal are both functioning "after some brief disruptions overnight." Virtua said that while the technical issues are impacting things like check-in and registration, "essential patient care" is not being affected.