It was bad enough that a global technology outage disrupted the travel plans of thousands of travelers coursing through South Florida airports on Friday as they embarked on trips for the weekend.
But local Social Security Administration offices nationwide are closed for the day, and some banks, medical facilities and other services in the public and private sectors were jarred around the United States. In South Florida, local government officials were closely monitoring communications, law enforcement, transit and other services that taxpayers expect to be in place each day.
One federal government service that was not fully operating: Social Security.
In an alert, the agency that dispenses benefits to millions of retirees and the disabled said its offices nationwide were shut by the technology glitch.
“Due to widespread IT outages due to the global Microsoft and Crowdstrike issues, local Social Security offices are closed to the public today,” the agency said in a note atop its website. It said its phone line — 800-772-1213 — remains open as are most online services at ssa.gov.
The problems were caused by a faulty software update that grounded flights and disrupted some banking and media outlets, hospitals and small businesses. The trouble were traced to an update issued by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and affected computers running Microsoft Windows. CrowdStrike said the incident was not caused by any hacking or cyberattack. The company, which apologized and said it was fixing the problem, supplies cybersecurity software to Fortune 500 companies, including major banks, healthcare and energy companies.
Hamstrung airlines
Delays and flight cancellations upset airline operations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, Palm Beach International and Miami International airports, according to website notifications and officials. Airlines scrambled overnight to curb the ripple effects of delays for passengers who spent hours waiting in airport terminals instead aboard airplanes scheduled to take them to nationwide destinations.
“An early morning systemwide technology issue is impacting some airline and passenger processing operations at U.S. airports, including #FLL,” the Broward County airport declared on its X social media account. “Flight delays are expected, so travelers should check with their airline for updated flight status before coming to #FLL.”
A county spokeswoman said the airport’s own operations were normal including parking and concessions. But airline flight delays and cancellations were expected to continue throughout the day.
Overnight, more than 1,000 flights were canceled in the U.S. after American Airlines, United and Delta asked the FAA for a worldwide ground stop on all flights, according to an FAA alert. Delta and American had the largest numbers of cancellations, while Southwest Airlines said it was not affected. American, which is the busiest carrier at Miami International Airport, said it had worked through the problem and was restoring its flight schedules to normal.
As of 11:30 a.m., the flight delay and cancellation picture looked this way at South Florida’s three international airports, according to the tracking service FlightAware:
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood: 52 cancellations / 143 delays
- Palm Beach: 20 cancellations / 38 delays
- Miami: 48 cancellations / 224 delays
South Florida-based discounter Spirit Airlines and other airlines messaged their customers outlining the terms of compensation offers on their websites.
“A third-party vendor is experiencing a global technical outage that is affecting Spirit’s reservations system and Airport systems, impacting flight operations,” the airline told its customers “If your flight is cancelled, you have the option to receive a refund, reservation credit, or to be rebooked on another Spirit flight. If your flight has been delayed by more than 2 hours, you can be rebooked on another Spirit flight, or receive a reservation credit or a refund if you do not wish to fly.”
The airline advised customers seeking refunds to call 833-417-5700 or visit spirit.com/help. But the carrier said its airport and guest care teams were unable to immediately assist with re-bookings.
Spirit said that since the cyber-driven problem was beyond its control, “impacted Guests will not be eligible for hotel accommodations, ground transportation, meal vouchers, air transportation on other carriers or sleeping arrangements at the airport.”
Regional rail services appeared unaffected, with Brightline, Tri-Rail and Amtrak trains operating normally.
“Brightline is operating as usual,” the high-speed railroad said atop its booking website. “We look forward to welcoming you aboard.”
But on the road, motorists using service plazas on Florida’s Turnpike encountered difficulties with ATM machines.
“Florida’s Turnpike Service Plazas are experiencing a service disruption that has affected onsite ATM’s, and the ability to accept credit card payments,” the Turnpike said on its social media account X. “Services are available for purchase with cash. Gas stations are not affected. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Broward closely monitoring services
Lori Shepard, senior public information officer for the county, said by email that operations were normal “across all emergency communications systems,” including E-911 calls.
It was also business as usual at Port Everglades at major terminals for cargo and energy. No cruise ships were in port Friday, The county’s bus sytem was also operating without disruption.
Shepard also said operations were “normal across county agencies reporting in thus far, but we will continue monitoring.”
In the meantime. the county’s Office of Emergency Management was contacting all of the county’s 30 cities about potential impacts. “We have yet to receive reports of negative impacts,” she said.
A spokeswoman for BrowardHealth said its four hospitals were not affected.
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