Passengers at Charlotte Douglas delayed, stranded from global tech outage

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The problems mounted quickly for Veena Rhodes Friday morning.

“There’s no signs of any delay on the app. But for some reason, I couldn’t check-in. So, as we got to the airport and there was canceled, canceled everywhere, all the airlines,” Rhodes recalls. “They said ‘We don’t know what happened, the system is down. All the flights are canceled, and our next flight is Monday.’ So, I was like, that’s three days from now!”

Rhodes was headed to Asheville from Boston, but was still 120 miles from her destination.

She and thousands of other flyers were heavily impacted by a global tech outage hitting airlines and other major businesses overnight. That outage — caused by a cybersecurity software update — forced the delay or cancellation of thousands of flights around the world.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground delay around 8 a.m. at Charlotte Douglas International.

“They are offering a $70 refund or $100 plus a refund for the seat, which, you know, is a budget airline,” Rhodes said. “It wasn’t a lot and I had to spend more for the new ticket. So, you know, it’s still a loss. And I just made it to Charlotte, so I’m not even kind of where I need to be.”

Travelers huddled around the baggage claim were just a small portion of those lingering for their luggage from the mountain of delayed flights.

One family had been in the airport for hours, nowhere near the place they called home.

“So our plane has been down, delays since 9 o’clock this morning and we’re still not home yet,” said Meliya Jackson. “And it’s 5 o’clock right now.”

She was there with other family members.

“No, I was not prepared at all. We were just expecting to go home and we not even home,” passenger Noah Martin said. “We’re still here at the airport.”

They’ve since been sleeping, and keeping their phones charged while they wait on their bags. Charlotte was the teen’s connecting flight from Jacksonville, Florida. They say they were hoping to be home by 2 p.m. Friday — that is, until they were notified about the flight issues.

“When I first got it, it was like my flight had been canceled, so I was a little panicky at first,” Martin said. “I was like, ‘How am I getting home?’ But I mean, I made it halfway, but we’re still delayed.”

Travelers who were impacted by the outage that are still at Charlotte Douglas say they hope to never run into this problem again.

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