Flights impacted at Ford Airport due to global technology outage

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Most flights arriving or departing from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Friday were impacted by a global technology outage.

The airport said the Federal Aviation Administration issued ground stops for multiple airlines impacted by the outage. Accordin g to the airport’s online flight tracker , some Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier and United flights were canceled or delayed on Friday.

Shortly before 8:30 a.m., the airport said some affected airlines hope to get flights off the ground soon.

The airport advised passengers to check their airline’s official website for updates on flight statuses and to contact the airline directly if they have concerns about flight delays or cancellations.

It was unknown when all flights would resume taking off, prompting some passengers to find nearby hotel rooms or get rental cars to drive to their destinations.

One man from Idaho told News 8 that he almost returned his rental car, but the employee told him to wait, and he’s thankful because now he is planning to hit the road to get back home.

“We definitely can’t be home with my family, but beyond that when you travel all week and then you’re ready to finally get home and then that gets blown up, it stinks but you understand it,” Drew Horsefield, heading to Idaho, said.

One woman who was dropping off her young granddaughters to catch a flight back home to Florida said it was her 9-year-old granddaughter’s first time away from home.

“The idea that we don’t know how we’re going to get them back, how long it’s going to take. It’s very frustrating,” Barbara Sloan of Portage said.

Display showing departures still showed plenty of orange or red as of late Friday afternoon, though it seemed people were starting to get checked in for the delayed flights. Still, travelers said it had been a day of headaches and uncertainty.

“On my way here, I was told that my flight was delayed 20 minutes. And then I get here and now they tell me it’s not supposed to leave until like quarter after 8. My connecting flight in Chicago is the last flight to Kansas City — that’s my destination — and the person at the counter told me, ‘It might be gone by the time you land in Chicago.’ So I might have to stay there,” traveler Ron Tesch recounted.

The airport reminded passengers that it “never closes and is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The Associated Press reports that the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike believes the issue was not a cyberattack but a system update problem. The outage has disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies worldwide.

In West Michigan, critical infrastructure was largely unaffected. Hospitals and emergency rooms remained open, though Corewell Health said many of its computers and systems were affected , which might delay some procedures and appointments.

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