The biggest impact of the computer outage may have been at the Billings airport, where some travelers learned their flights had been canceled or delayed.
Local companies were affected, including Q2 being taken the off the air for a short time.
A worldwide computer outage crippled operations at many companies, affecting everything from airlines to hospitals to banks.
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike says the outage was caused by a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows and was not caused by a security incident or cyber attack.
Billings Logan International Airport returned to normal by late afternoon.
Delta and United were the two airlines that needed to cancel flights, according to Shane Ketterling, city of Billings assistant director of aviation and transit.
Each had to cancel one flight and Delta had a delay on one other flight, United on two.
While many in Billings may have experienced some problems with computers, it's those people that were traveling, that may have been most affected.
Travel plans have been disrupted for some and they don't know when they're going to be fixed.
Passengers were stranded at airports around the world as a massive technology outage, crippled airports and grounded flights with more than 1,300 delays and cancellations reported before 6 a.m. mountain time.
Frank Saafeld and Andy Lawrence made the four-hour drive from Sydney to Billigns Logan, arriving at 3:30 a.m. only to learn their flight was canceled.
They contacted Philippine Airlines about getting flights to Los Angeles and then Manila.
“My wife lives in the Philippines,” Saafeld said. “Manila Airport is a disaster area because the computers all went down.”
Saafeld says it took six hours just to get on the phone with a Delta representative, which then tried to rebook them on United, but the computer system kept them from getting the boarding passes.
“We go over to United,” Saafeld said. “Philippine Air didn't transfer the money to United so they can't print us a ticket without the money changing hands.”
Saafeld and Lawrence eventually were helped and rebooked their flights for Sunday.
Others are stuck and stranded overseas.
“The airport's a zoo,” Rick McGarvey said about Amesterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands. “There were thousands of people there.”
McGarvey and his wife live in Red Lodge and are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
They along with their son, daughter-in-law and three grandkids were on their way to Copenhagen, Denmark.
“And then we're supposed to be there now to get on a cruise ship tomorrow morning,” McGarvey said. “And that doesn't look doable.”
Instead, the McGarveys are stranded in Amsterdam.
“We have been planning this for a year,” McGarvey said. “We just can't believe that after the careful planning that this all happened. So we don't know when we're going to get out of here.”
The family is now considering a nine-hour train ride, but knows even that is a long shot.
A trip of a lifetime is now in jeopardy, due to technology.
“We are so dependent on it,” McGarvey said. “And when something like this happens, it really can foul up the world.”
The effects are felt both overseas and right here at home.
“The whole world stops when the computer system goes down,” Saafeld said. “We've relied on it too much.”
“Disappointing,” McGarvey said. “It's been crazy.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0