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Global tech outage leaves passengers in limbo as they attempt to rebook flights
A global tech outage stranded travelers worldwide, leaving airlines and passengers desperately attempting to get back on track.
PHILADELPHIA - Airports, hospitals, banks, courts – you name it, the CrowdStrike outage sent a ripple effect across the entire country.
CrowdStrike, as you may know by now, is a cybersecurity company that provides software to companies around the world. The CEO of the company claims a Windows update is to blame for the global technology outage.
As of late Friday afternoon, some organizations and businesses say they are back up and running. But, despite that, there is a lot of catching up to do.
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PHL experiences long lines, delayed and canceled flights in global tech outage
Flights are slowly getting back to normal operations, but that was not the case earlier Friday when a global tech outage canceled a majority of morning flights. Passengers did their best under trying and confusing circumstances.
Amtrak ticket sales are back up and running after issues earlier related to the outage, where people had to pay cash for tickets.
TRYING TIMES AT PHL AMID GLOBAL TECH OUTAGE
Things are much better now at Philadelphia International Airport, then they were Friday morning, but there are still a whole lot of people waiting for a flight, or a reschedule of a canceled flight.
"It’s like my third or fourth time being at this airport. I’ve never experienced anything like this," said Ericka Russell.
"There are so many people. They’re not even letting us know what’s wrong or why it’s happening or when the next flight is gonna be, so we just gotta wait it out," Nas Thomas said.
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The Thomas family has been waiting for hours to fly out to California, but because of the outage, their flight just keeps getting delayed.
Russell continued, "This is crazy. It is really scary because you don’t know what’s going on, you know, electronic-wise."
It’s no ordinary vacation, as little Essini is recovering from cancer and heading out west for a Make A Wish Foundation trip with her whole family.
Thomas explained, "They want to get out and enjoy outside and have some fun, so I’m trying to keep them calm. We got them some Wendy’s, so hopefully when they eat, we can have a little fun now."
"I think it’s important to emphasize all critical systems are functioning within the airport system," CEO for Philly International, Atif Saeed, said. "Passengers at PHL have been generally very understanding and accepting of the situation."
Two women heading to Punta Cana even got on the plane, only to learn their flight was canceled.
"It’s real frustrating and it’s even like scarier because we came here with nobody dropping us off," Jarielys Santiago stated.
Some travelers heard news of the delays, planned ahead and got to the airport hours ahead of time.
"And not stress ourselves out or anybody else that’s involved and get through TSA, cause we figure it’s all gonna be complicated," Kathy Gustafson, of Pittsburgh, explained. "We’re just gonna take out time and get through the list and we bear the check-in people here, but that’s okay."
Flights leaving Friday night or Saturday morning are still experiencing some delays, so check your carrier and give yourself plenty of time.
PHILADELPHIA OFFICIALS RESPOND TO OUTAGE
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Mayor Cherelle Parker, officials update city operations during global tech outage
Mayor Parker and other city leaders pointed out city services were not badly affected in the global tech outage, citing preparedness of just such an outage.
Meanwhile, city officials say they’ve prepared for events like this one. The City of Philadelphia was not spared from the impact, though the recovery was swift.
"We realize this was the big one. We were on full alert understanding that critical sectors could be affected. We had continuity in place and we contacted all of our partners," Dominick Mireles, Deputy Managing Director of OEM stated.
Mayor Cherelle Parker went on, "Our critical public safety operations are now functioning, and it is a testimony to the work of all of the city."
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Followed by Melissa Scott, CIO of the Office of Information Technology, "All data is safe and we will be completely back online Monday."
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel stated, "Fortunately, 911 remained in operation throughout this incident. We had no breaks in services."
What was interrupted and then shut down for the day was the city’s municipal court system at the Criminal Justice Center.
Mayor Parker noted that prisoner processing was temporarily disrupted and some human services operations were running, but not fully operational. City health center operations were impacted, but not shut down.
"We are going to keep working on this until all the apparatus that we deal with is working as it should," Mayor Parker added.