Buffalo Airport, hospitals among WNY services affected by technology outage

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A global technology outage affecting Microsoft apps and services led to major disruptions around the world Friday, including in Western New York.

Buffalo Airport experiencing delays

Buffalo Niagara International Airport had multiple flights delayed Friday morning as a result of the outage, a spokesperson for the NFTA told WIVB News 4, and they are “advising travelers to contact their airline” as some flights are still able to fly out.

Delta announced it paused its global flight schedule Friday morning as a result of the outage.

The NFTA’s trains, buses and police are not experiencing any delays.

Multiple WNY healthcare providers, hospitals affected

Erie County Medical Center activated its internal command center and implemented computer downtime procedures due to the outage, according to a statement to WIVB. However, the hospital said its patient care is “fully functional and uninterrupted” despite the technology issues.

Kaleida Health hospitals were also affected by the outage overnight and had to implement its internal incident command center as well as computer downtime procedures, according to a statement. The healthcare provider is still encouraging staff and patients (including surgeries, clinic visits and physician appointments) to report as scheduled as its IT department managed to bring computer systems back online.

Hospitals operated by Kaleida include Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Olean General Hospital and Oishei Children’s Hospital.

Catholic Health also activated its internal incident command center and experienced some communication delays due to the outage. All of its facilities remain open and emergency care is unaffected, however non-urgent appointments and surgeries may be running slightly delayed.

Roswell Park confirmed that surgeries and procedures will proceed as planned Friday despite technology issues from the outage. The treatment center said in a statement that care is not impacted, but there may be some delays in clinic operations as systems are brought back up.

The VA Western New York Healthcare System said it is operating as normal and has had no technology disruptions.

Delays at the border

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has confirmed in a statement that they are experiencing processing delays due to the outage. Longer than normal wait times at the border are possible. CBP says they are working to resolve the issue and minimize the impact to international trade and travel.

CBP phone apps remain operational. Updates will be provided when they become available.

Some county, city services experiencing issues

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a thread on X/Twitter that the New York State system utilized by multiple county services is inoperable, affecting the Department of Social Services and Erie County Clerk’s Office for DMV matters. The public is asked not to come to those offices seeking services until it is advised that their systems are back online.

Life-safety systems such as 911 are operational in Erie County despite the issues.

Some departments in Niagara County were impacted by the outage, and work to repair any systems that are down is ongoing, according to a statement. The public is advised to contact county departments if they have business to conduct with them on Friday.

Numerous computers and servers within Chautauqua County government offices were affected by the outage, according to a statement, and the restoration process “will take some time.” Certain emergency applications within the county system experienced some disruptions but are now fully restored, and emergency response is not affected by the outage. All county government offices will be open Friday.

The City of Buffalo confirmed to WIVB that it is suffering no major issues at this time due to the outage and that public safety services are still operating. City Hall remains open but those coming to do business can expect delays as some computer systems are down.

A spokesperson for M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust said the bank is “quickly restoring affected platforms” while working with partners to update those systems as well, saying mobile banking, ATMs, branches and call centers are all available to serve clients and customers.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue affected Microsoft 365 apps and services, and escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing it.

The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

Adam Gorski is a Buffalo native who joined the WIVB News 4 team in 2022. You can find more of his work here .