UPPER PENINSULA, Mich. (WLUC) – Friday’s technology outage caused by a faulty software update grounded flights and impacted hospital systems, government offices and other businesses worldwide; however, the Upper Peninsula emerged relatively unscathed.
Delta County Airport Manager Robert Randstadler said the airport had minimal impacts from the global outage.
“It was more of a minor inconvenience than anything else. For my office here, in particular, we just had our computers down for a little bit,” Ranstadler said. “There was a small amount of downtime where we weren’t able to access our systems. But they’re all administrative in nature. There are no issues related to security or safety.”
Ranstadler said there was some confusion about flights early on because systems were down at Delta SkyWest. But he said the local team coordinated with staff in Minneapolis and Detroit to keep flights operating on schedule.
“They’re still experiencing a few technical issues with some of their computers, which they have workarounds in place for that,” Ranstadler said. “So, it might lead to some minor delays in boarding times, things of that nature.”
Operations at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport also proceeded as scheduled. Airport Director of Operations Duane DuRay said he was seeing most delays affect travelers after departing the U.P. and when they arrived at connecting airports.
Statements from several area hospital systems indicated outage disruptions but no shutdowns or delays in service for patients. Marshfield Clinic Health System said services may be slowed, including a morning phone outage at its Marquette Clinic, which was resolved. Bellin Health said its systems had minor clinical impacts. UP Health System said there were a few server issues. And OSF St. Francis Hospital & Medical Group had no issues.
Local government offices said they also experienced minimal impacts. Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young said computers were only down for about two hours.
Meanwhile, Ranstadler said he wants to reassure the traveling public that the Delta County Airport has security protocols in place to handle any emergency.
“We look forward to flying some planes and serving the public.”
Click here for our previous coverage of the technology outages.
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