Tech outage impacts across the Northland

Flying on Friday became challenging when a global tech outage impacted the airlines.

Erik Wedge did make his flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Hibbing. The architect from Virginia had been on a work trip.

“I couldn’t get on the app to check in remotely. I took the shuttle to the airport, and it was mass chaos. Lines everywhere. I was lucky enough to have my confirmation number and was able to find a kiosk and get checked into my flight,” he told us.

They even arrived in Hibbing a little early, which surprised him. “It turned out well for me, but I wish everyone else traveling luck because it seemed to be a bottle neck and a real problem.

Another problem was 911 service in St. Louis County. There was an outage. “We did send a page to all fire departments to have people staff their fire halls. But things are back to normal now,” explained Josh Brinkman, St. Louis County Emergency Management Coordinator.

The City of Duluth posted a statement, saying some services were delayed and phones unanswered while connectivity issues were improved.

The computer lab at the CareerForce center was closed Friday due to the outage.

All of this, because of a faulty software update from the cyber security firm Crowdstrike. Thousands of government agencies and businesses around the world use their services. The CEO apologizing and saying this was not a cyberattack.