Global software outage disrupts travel, emergency services in metro Phoenix
A global technology outage on Friday morning caused issues with emergency services, health care providers and many other sectors, bringing some computerized aspects of everyday life in Arizona to a halt.
Emergency response systems were reported down at some of the Phoenix area's biggest police agencies and health care providers early Friday, affecting vital services across the region.
As of Friday afternoon, many of the affected groups were back online and returning to regular operations, though some issues still lingered.
The global technology outage was caused by a faulty security update, according to cybersecurity CrowdStrike.
CrowdStrike, a U.S. firm that advertises being used by over half of Fortune 500 companies, said one of its recent content updates had a defect that impacted Microsoft's Windows Operating System, adding the incident was "not a security incident or cyberattack."
The company's CEO, George Kurtz, apologized for the disruptions in a post on X, noting the issue has been identified and isolated and a fix has been deployed. CrowdStrike is "working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on."
Meanwhile, Microsoft said "the underlying cause has been fixed" and impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services have been recovered, though the company continues to monitor the issue.
What is CrowdStrike?What to know about company tied to tech outage affecting Arizona
Police and ambulances dispatch emergency services manually
Because their computers weren't working, some police and ambulance providers were dispatching cars manually. Emergency dispatchers were able to take 911 calls but were writing down information on paper to share with first responders.
The widespread systems outage affected emergency operations in Phoenix, Mesa, Goodyear, Peoria, Scottsdale and Queen Creek.
Phoenix Police Department spokesperson Donna Rossi said the issue began late Thursday night. 911 call centers were able to take calls but had to dispatch officers manually.
See the list:Global tech outage affected these Arizona agencies and businesses
"We are working off cards right now ... We have no internet. We have no CAD ... we're still working on it," another Phoenix dispatcher said early Friday.
A dispatcher for ambulance company American Medical Response confirmed its company’s system was “completely down" early Friday morning.
The dispatcher, Lizzy, said the company could take 911 calls but must dispatch by phone manually instead of computer. She would not provide her last name, citing company policy.
Not every agency in the region was affected. The Gilbert Fire & Rescue Department and Tempe Police Department, for example, reported no issues.
The Glendale Police Department confirmed experiencing a brief internet outage that was restored as of 1:30 a.m. Friday. "There was not been an impact to the public or calls for service," said Sgt. A. Leyvas, a department spokesperson.
Arizona hospitals and health care services affected
Several major health care groups in Arizona were impacted by the technology outage, including Banner Health, Dignity Health, St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center and Valleywise Health.
Banner Health officials said its operations were impacted by the global system outage, forcing the closure of all Banner locations except for hospitals and urgent cares.
"We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to reopen and reschedule appointments at these locations as soon as possible," Banner Health said in a statement.
St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center confirmed system outages, but a telephone operator said she could not provide details about the extent of the problems.
Valleywise Health had some IT systems affected, but its emergency departments and trauma center were open, and the hospital was continuing with scheduled surgeries, spokesperson Michael Murphy said.
"In some cases, our health care professionals had to resort to paper medical charting, but our IT teams are carefully bringing back all our systems," he said. "We want to assure the community Valleywise Health is open and continuing to provide high-quality care to every patient, every time."
Other hospitals' computers were up and running. "Our systems are not down," said Camille Olson, house supervisor at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center, said early Friday morning. "Right now, everything is working."
Travelers affected by outage
The departures area of Terminal 4 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was busy with travelers Friday morning.
The check-in lines for Southwest Airlines, which had the most delayed flights Thursday, had low traffic. But across the room, people were lined up to check in for flights with American Airlines.
The line for checking in with Delta Air Lines in Terminal 3 was another story. Some people appeared frustrated and tired, others accepted they had to wait it out.
“It’s no use getting upset when you’re seeing everyone in the same place,” said Kim Butler of Alaska. “You get the chance to meet interesting people.”
Butler, who had a flight around noon that was delayed, had been waiting in line about 30 minutes. But he was still much closer to the back of the line than the front.
Other travelers like Roberto Gavino, 43, had been waiting at the overall airport much longer. The man from Tucson was supposed to leave at midnight Thursday to Panama with his wife for vacation. But he said the flight was pushed to midnight Saturday.
“I’m in line to see if I can try to leave today," he said. "We have people waiting for us.”
The Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport flight status page showed that no arrivals or departures were scheduled for Friday morning, as Allegiant Air was affected by the outage. By Friday afternoon, several flights were listed as canceled, rescheduled or delayed.
Airlines affected:Why are flights delayed in Phoenix right now? What passengers need to know
Government systems affected
Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office released a detailed list of critical state services that were affected by Thursday night’s outage. The state has stepped up monitoring for issues to a Level 2, Hobbs said in a statement.
The state Department of Homeland Security was helping to triage network issues at state and local governments, as well as private businesses, Hobbs said.
As of early evening Friday, these services were still dealing with the outage:
- Call centers at the state’s Motor Vehicle Division offices are down, so calls are being routed to a higher level of call center.
- Cameras at two MVD offices, in Kingman and Nogales, are down, which could complicate driver license renewal.
- Indian Health Services has minor outages.
- Problems with commercial vehicle permitting services at the state and international borders have been resolved and they are back in operation. That's the same case for ADOT's dynamic message boards and cameras along the state’s highway system.
- Indian Health Services has minor outages.
- Early voting centers across the counties are down. The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office was working to get them back in operation and reports there have been no security breaches.
- The state Department of Revenue’s website (aztaxes.gov) was down in the morning but was operating as of Friday afternoon.
Some stores only taking cash after outage
The effects of the technology outage even trickled down to stores, causing some places to only take cash payments.
Some Starbucks locations were taking only cash on Friday morning, according to multiple media reports and consumers on X were complaining about not being able to use the Starbucks mobile app.
Circle K point-of-service terminals were reported down in the Phoenix area as well on Friday morning, causing clerks to only take cash at stores. Circle K officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Arizona Republic reporters Laura Daniella Sepulveda, Sasha Hupka, Jose R. Gonzalez, Jimmy Jenkins, Sam Kmack and Alexandra Hardle contributed to this article.
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