Philadelphia airport delays, Amtrak issues caused by worldwide computer outage
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Airports are still seeing delays Saturday morning after a widespread computer outage. As of Saturday morning, there were at least 25 delays at PHL.
Officials say the impacts could last through the weekend.
American Airlines says it expects to deliver "reliable operations", but a travel alert remains in effect.
The outage started early Friday morning. Officials say a faulty software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected computers running Microsoft windows.
Overnight Friday CrowdStrike released a statement, "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This was not a cyberattack.
The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We are referring customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous public updates on our blog.
We further recommend organizations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.
Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.
We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.
We assure our customers that CrowdStrike is operating normally and this issue does not affect our Falcon platform systems. If your systems are operating normally, there is no impact to their protection if the Falcon sensor is installed.
We will continue to provide updates to our community and the industry as they become available."
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said all city services were back up and running Friday afternoon but with some limitations.
The city was first alerted to an issue early in the morning, and the emergency operations center was buzzing with activity all day long.
During a news conference inside the EOC, the mayor and city officials detailed the impacts that were unavoidable because of the global IT outage and the city's response.
The Chief Information Officer, Melissa Scott, said the city was notified around 2:30 a.m. of a planned antivirus software rollout by CrowdStrike, and every computer and server at that time was impacted by the outage.
Scott said about 90% of the city's servers were back up and running by the afternoon.
According to Philadelphia Police, they had email and internet issues, but the city's 911 system remained up and running and there were no breaks in service. The fire department said it was also fully operational.
"No one is resting, no one is slowing or easing up our response and no one assumes that everything is fixed. We're going to keep at this until every computer system, every laptop, and every component of our IT apparatus are working exactly the way they should," said Parker. "This is when you truly find out what our city government is made of."
Work on the city's computers will continue over the weekend with the goal of having everyone back online by Monday.
The worldwide computer outage affected some hospitals, court systems and state agencies across our region. Here's what we know:
Flights at PHL grounded, canceled due to cyber outage
Multiple airlines that fly in and out of Philadelphia International Airport reported system outages affecting flights in Philadelphia. Several airlines including, American, United and Delta grounded their flights.
Early Friday morning, the Philadelphia airport was packed with confused and frustrated travelers waiting to see if they would be able to get to their destinations. As the morning went on, some progress was made and some airlines resumed their flights. However, other travelers say their flights were canceled.
As of 9 p.m. Friday, there were 273 delays and 101 cancelations at PHL, leading to long lines of frustrated passengers.
Daniel Williams from Southwest Philadelphia said his flight from Detroit to Philadelphia was delayed for three hours, but on Friday, he finally landed and is back home.
"There were certain trips to California that were completely canceled," Williams said. "Any trip going toward California or anywhere on the West Coast was completely canceled. Luckily, I was going to Philadelphia."
Mona Duwell from Wilmington said her sister-in-law wasn't so lucky. She was trying to catch a flight from West Palm Beach to Philadelphia but never made it because she didn't have a copy of her boarding pass on her phone. As a result, she will now miss her family's reunion on Saturday.
"They [airport staff] couldn't find her because they had no way to look her up," Duwell said. "So only those people who had it on their phone showing that they checked in prior with their boarding pass and everything could get on the plane today."
Another frustrated passenger is Ruth McNeil. After waiting 13 hours at PHL, she and her family went home to Wilmington because of multiple delays and cancellations. They were trying to catch a flight to Atlanta to connect to Mexico City, where McNeil was planning to host a Frozen-themed party for her daughter's fourth birthday. The party will have to go on without her.
"We already composed ourselves but in the end, we are crying because so disappointing," said McNeil.
If you are traveling, check the status of your flight before you head out.
Hospitals in Philadelphia region report computer issues
Some hospitals and medical facilities in the Philadelphia area have been affected by the computer outage. Here are the health systems we have heard from:
Jefferson Health is currently not experiencing any operational issues related to the outage.
Main Line Health is experiencing unexpected system issues to clinical and non-clinical applications. However, Main Line Health continues to accept patients for care. All operations are continuing normally except for elected surgical procedures, which were paused Friday morning.
Temple Health said they were not impacted by the outage.
Cooper University Health Care said they are not experiencing any outages and are operating normally.
Doylestown Health said they were impacted by the outage but it has not affected patient safety or patient care at Doylestown Hospital. They said emergency response protocols are in place to ensure necessary clinical operations.
Penn Medicine said its hospitals and emergency departments are fully staffed and continuing to care for patients. However, outpatient appointments and procedures in some locations may be canceled.
Philadelphia Health Department care centers are open but may not be fully operational. The city recommends calling before going to a health center.
If you have any upcoming medical appointments it is best to call ahead to confirm with your health care provider.
Philadelphia Courts closed Friday, July 19
The Courts of Philadelphia, all First Judicial District Courts and offices will be closed on Friday due to the worldwide outage. All cases that were scheduled for Friday, July 19 will be rescheduled.
Officials say you can contact the courts on their website for new dates starting Monday.
As of Friday 9 a.m., the Philadelphia Courts website was down.
Amtrak customers having issues paying for tickets
A CBS Philadelphia photojournalist at 30th Street Station reported Amtrak customers having issues paying with a credit card and cash. Amtrak employees are helping customers with the issues.
Philadelphia police and fire report internet issues
Philadelphia police and fire reported email and internet issues to CBS Philadelphia, but say they are still able to respond to 911 calls.
In a Facebook post, the city of Philadelphia said it is aware of the international IT issue and is impacted. "9-1-1 and life and public safety systems remain functional. We continue to assess the full impact. City staff and employees are to still report to work to assist with critical support tasks related to the outage."
Philadelphia hospitals facing computer issues
We reached out to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. They tell CBS Philadelphia they are facing some computer issues there as well.
Retailers, grocery stores experience computer issues
Wegmans Food Markets also reported that it is experiencing operation issues Friday morning. A representative told our CBS Philadelphia staff that they cannot access their WiFi connection and cannot access their food inventory. The representative said this impact is along the east coast.
Acme grocery stores said their systems are running but their Pennsylvania Lottery machines are down.
Pennsylvania agencies experiencing delays
The outages have also impacted some Pennsylvania systems and agency business operations. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on X, formerly known as Twitter, "There is no indication that a security incident or cyberattack has occurred."
He said the issue is being closely monitored.
"I've been briefed on the issue, and our team is closely monitoring all services that may have been affected to ensure Pennsylvanians' needs are met," Shapiro said on X.
There may be delays with certain Commonwealth services, Shapiro said. Updates will be posted on Pa.gov.
Delaware DMV locations closed Friday, July 19
The Delaware Department of Transportation said all Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles locations will be closed due to the outage.
"It's definitely a disadvantage because now what are we going to do?" said Jimmilis Jimenez, who was one of the many drivers turned away at the Wilmington location.
Signs were posted on the doors explaining the closure because of the IT outage.
Ellen Newton was unable to get a new ID after she said her purse was stolen.
"Well, what can we do really, we have to wait until everything is done," Newton said.
Public safety services are operating normally but other state services may be experiencing extended delays while the issue is resolved.
Stay with CBS Philadelphia for the latest developments.
