Global tech outage: At PBIA, Delta Airlines takes the biggest hit with flights grounded
WEST PALM BEACH — Hundreds of passengers at Palm Beach International Airport queued up in long lines Friday as airlines grounded flights because of a global computer software technical malfunction.
Airline computers worldwide running Microsoft Windows crashed Friday after installing the latest version of software from U.S.-based cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike. As of 3 p.m., Friday, PBIA said there were 20 cancellations and 52 delays at the airport. All but five were on Delta Air Lines, Delta is PBIA's largest carrier, and its busy Atlanta hub was a focal point of national flight delays Friday.
At PBIA, the Delta ticketing counter had the longest line, snaking out to the airport entrance. Many of the flights were to Atlanta, but the carrier also flies to Boston, Detroit and New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports.
The airline issued this statement Friday:
"Delta has resumed some flights after a vendor technology issue impacting airlines and businesses globally. We have issued a travel waiver for all customers who have booked flights departing Friday, July 19, and customers can monitor and manage their itineraries on Delta.com or the Fly Delta app."
Sven Magnuson, a Palm Beach County resident with a Delta ticket directly to Boston, said he had moved 12 feet in the hour he had been in line Friday morning, but remained optimistic.
"This is a nice airport to be stuck at," he said. "It's a small airport where it's not crazy. Nobody's screaming yet."
Other Palm Beach County impact from the global technical outage
A cybersecurity company said the early-morning outages were not caused by a security incident or cyberattack. But escalating disruptions continued hours after Microsoft said it was gradually fixing it. What's more, the technical fiasco wreaked havoc not only with airlines, but banks, state and federal agencies, and even emergency services around the world.
In Palm Beach County, for example, customers were surprised and disappointed to find Social Security offices were closed Friday because of the tech crash.
Elsewhere, online services halted in some government facilities, including building permitting in Boca Raton. Palm Beach Gardens' online permitting was not working Friday morning, but was running by the afternoon, the city said on its social media accounts after 1 p.m.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz apologized for the disruptions during an NBC interview Friday. Microsoft, meanwhile, said "the underlying cause has been fixed," but residual impacts will affect some of its Microsoft 365 apps and services.
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The crash did not affect Palm Tran, the Palm Beach County public bus system, a spokesperson said. Trains were running on-time for South Florida's public passenger rail line, Tri-Rail, and the privately run regional fast train, Brightline.
Some ATMs around the county were not working, including some along Florida's Turnpike, the Florida Department of Transportation said Friday morning. Gas stations at service stops along the highway were.
Around the world, the outages disrupted London's Stock Exchange, caused major train delays in the U.K., sent British broadcaster Sky News off the air, forced medical facilities in Europe and the U.S. to cancel some services, and caused disruptions at airports in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and India.
Chris Persaud covers transportation for The Palm Beach Post. You can email him at CPersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: More than a dozen flights grounded at PBIA from global tech outage
