Global IT outage impacts flights at Chicago's O'Hare, Midway airports
CrowdStrike CEO says fix being implemented
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A global IT outage impacted airlines, airports, banks and media companies Friday morning, including systems across the Chicago area.
As of late Friday night, O'Hare Airport was still very busy. Some of the folks waiting had been there since early in the morning.
Their flights were canceled, but they just wanted their luggage back, however, that was going to take four hours or more. ABC7 expected many of the passengers to be at the airport overnight.
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The global outage also impacted apps and servers for Microsoft 365.
CrowdStrike, a U.S. cybersecurity company, has admitted to being responsible for the error and are working to correct it.
At O'Hare Airport's Terminal 1, long lines, mounting baggage and frustrations abounded Friday morning.
"We stood in line for an hour," Jeanne LaSusa, whose flight was canceled, said. "There's nothing they can do for us."
United Airlines and Delta worked to get their systems back online after the global tech outage grounded flights across the country and around the world, leading to delays and cancellations.
South Elgin resident Jeanne LaSusa was supposed to fly to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Friday morning.
"We can't even find a flight to get out of here today," she said. "We were supposed to leave at 9 this morning, got delayed, delayed and as we pulled up we were canceled."
Signs of the tech outage were on display throughout Terminal 1. United Airlines and airport flight information screens were down, displaying a blue error message.
It was devastating, because I have an event that I have to go there in Mexico and I didn't want to miss it.Arturo Villatindo, delayed traveler
"I'm just frustrated," Kim Barone, whose flight was delayed, said. "I wish I could have known about the delays ahead of time. We just got the one email saying there was problems and that it could happen."
Across the country, more than 1,000 flights were canceled and more than 3,000 were delayed.
American, Allegiant, Spirit and Frontier later lifted their ground stops. United and Delta were slowly working to get more planes in the sky.
"I could see that there were some people who seemed a little bit frantic out there," Breanne Lindsay, whose flight was delayed, said. "Concerned about maybe connecting flights, or flights for work. It did seem like there was a little bit of anxiety."
As lines of weary travelers inside O'Hare's Terminal 1 awaited the fate of their flights, some passengers were doing what they could to keep a positive attitude.
"I don't worry about the small things," Kevin Fasone, whose flight was delayed, said. "We'll fly when it's ready to fly and if it's not ready to fly, we're fine with that as well. We'll come back another time."
Midway airport also had problems Friday morning.
Bride Patoya Cobbs fought back tears after the Frontier Airlines flight taking her to Dallas for her out of state ceremony Saturday was canceled because of the global IT outage.
With her nuptials are schedule for Saturday, and with no luck getting on another plane, she was afraid she may end up missing her own wedding. ABC7 was told later in the day Friday that Cobbs was able to make it to Dallas in time for her wedding plans.
"So this morning when I got here, I came up here checked in. I went all the way down to my gate, and then is when I found out that my flight was canceled and I had to walk all the way back up here," Cobbs said. "Aiden in line... the line was all the way back here, and when I got to the front, they told me that they can help me."
The Chicagoan was one of thousands of passengers left stranded at Midway Airport when internet systems went down.
"It was devastating, because I have an event that I have to go there in Mexico and I didn't want to miss it," Arturo Villatindo said.
He was supposed to leave on a plane at 6 a.m. from O'Hare heading to Mexico. Instead, because of the interruptions, he came to Midway Airport to get a flight.
Other travelers had similar stories.
"We just kept getting delayed, delayed, delayed," Joe Losoaf from San Diego said. "Next thing you know we're on the plane. They board us all. They deep clean up and by 3 a.m. they just cancelled it."
Really get it together, because you affected a lot of people. You hurt a lot of people and affected a lot of people by this today.Judy Rodriguez, traveler frustrated with CrowdStrike
Fortunately for some travelers, like Isaac Ewuoso, who was headed to Boston, the disruption didn't keep them from taking to the skies.
"I expect to check and quickly make my flight," Ewuoso said.
Travel basketball coach and parent Andre Adkinson and some of his players were stranded in Chicago Friday and trying to get out to Las Vegas for a championship tournament. A few players were able to make it out Thursday, but it didn't look good for the rest.
"Yeah, we've been yesterday... just trying to get our games going tough they keep delaying our flight," travel basketball player Aidan Mells said.
With it being the weekend, some passengers told ABC7 the next available flight to their destination was not until Sunday. Some people said they are going to be missing out on non-refundable vacations and big life events.
At O'Hare, some passengers had a message for CrowdStrike.
"Really get it together, because you affected a lot of people. You hurt a lot of people and affected a lot of people by this today," Franklin Park resident Judy Rodriguez said.
Andrew Hoog, co-founder of the Chicago-based cyber security company Now-Secure, joined ABC7 Friday evening to talk more about the global technology outage and what CrowdStrike is.
Metra said some trains were operating with delays Friday as a result of the Microsoft outage. CTA, and the Illinois Department of Transportation said they were not impacted. Chicago police said they have intermittent computer issues, but there is no impact for 911 and dispatcher service.
Some Illinois government operations are being impacted by the CrowdStrike issue, with a spokesperson saying, "This outage has impacted several public-facing online systems, causing interruptions in service. The State is working diligently on restoration and minimizing the impact on the public. All efforts are being made to resolve the issue as swiftly as possible to ensure the continuity of state operations and public services."
Hospitals across the country were affected, including in Chicago. UChicago Medicine said the outage caused hundreds of disconnections, but later they got most things back online. RUSH said patient impact was minimal, and Advocate said some elective procedures were rescheduled.
Some DMV's were in the dark. The Secretary of State's Office said to call ahead at 800-252-8980 to find out if the service needed is available.
Workers at Starbucks told ABC7 Friday morning that in-store transactions were being processed, but there were problems with mobile orders.
