Jenna Lyons rests her feet on her baggage while waiting in the ticketing area of the Portland International Jetport on Friday morning. Lyons was returning to Maryland after attending an Audubon camp in Maine, and her Southwest flight to Baltimore was delayed three hours. “I just have to be patient and wait it out,” Lyons said. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

A global technology outage Friday disrupted flights at the Portland International Jetport, blocked some Mainers from accessing bank accounts and kept businesses of all kinds from operating as usual.

Unlike in other states, Maine’s 911 system and its two largest hospitals were unaffected.

Morning departures from American, Delta and United airlines were delayed or canceled outright as a result of the Microsoft outages caused by a CrowdStrike security software glitch.

The problem was not the result of hacking or a cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way, The Associated Press reported.

In short updates posted on the jetport website, officials said several airlines were impacted by the outage. At 7:15 a.m., the website listed more than two dozen delayed or canceled incoming and outgoing flights.

By 3 p.m., as CrowdStrike’s effort to fix the outage showed results, JetBlue and Southwest reported flights were back in operation at the jetport, while American, Breeze, Delta and United had resumed some operations.

At the Bank of America branch in South Portland’s Mill Creek Shopping Center, a Cape Elizabeth woman said she was allowed to close a savings account, then was unable to get the cash.

“They let me close my account, then when I went to the teller, I couldn’t get the money,” she said.

The branch manager told her she could try back later Friday, or try the Bank of America at the Maine Mall that’s open Saturday, or return to the Mill Creek branch on Monday.

“I know Bank of America is reputable, so I’m putting my faith in that, but it still seems sketchy,” she said.

The branch manager referred questions to a corporate spokesperson.

Screens above the baggage carousels in the baggage claim area of the Portland International Jetport show a Microsoft error message on Friday morning. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

TD Bank also was affected, issuing the following statement for 10 Portland-area branches and beyond.

“TD and other organizations around the world have been impacted by a global technology disruption,” said spokesperson PJ Brovak. “Teams are working hard to restore all online banking and other impacted systems. For immediate banking needs, TD customers can visit their local TD bank or fully-operational ATM.”

BUSINESSES AND NONPROFITS IMPACTED

Many businesses and nonprofits experienced payroll and other disruptions, including Goodwill Northern New England, which employs 1,500 people in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

“Our scheduling and payroll systems are struggling right now and we hope they get fixed soon because it’s payroll day,” said spokesperson Heather Steeves. “People will get paid, but it’s kind of scary because it’s a reminder of how connected and reliant we are on technology.”

All Goodwill stores were operating as usual, she said, including the one in the Mill Creek Shopping Center.

But next door at Starbucks, the outage shut down the terminals for drive-through service and forced all customers indoors, where terminals were functioning just fine.

And all computer systems were down at Shoppers True Value Hardware, located in the same strip mall. Staff advised customers as they entered the store to note the prices of items they wanted to purchase.

“We’re taking cash or credit cards,” said Lauren Springer, general manager. “We just have to write everything down and process the payments when the systems come back up.”

Store co-owner Jessica Simpson writes down credit card information on a notepad at Shoppers True Value Hardware in South Portland on Friday with shop cat Daniel at her side. The Microsoft outage took down the store’s point-of-sale system, so Simpson said she would process credit card sales when it came back online. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

While the outage forced Mass General Brigham in Boston to cancel non-urgent surgeries and hospital visits, MaineHealth and Northern Light Health, the state’s two largest health care systems, said they had no issues connected to the outage.

“We remain fully operational and patient care has not been affected,” said Northern Light spokesperson Karen Sanborn. “Our system does not use the primary product causing the issues, but we are aware that some of our third-party vendors may. Therefore, we are monitoring the situation, and we are prepared if service delays do occur.”

MaineHealth is one of about 100 Maine companies that are clients of Uprise Partners, a global IT and security firm with offices in Portland and Tampa, Florida.

“None of our Maine clients were directly affected by the outage,” said Brian Gagnon, chief technology officer with 26 years of industry experience.

Gagnon emphasized that the outage wasn’t caused by a cyber attack, but rather a software glitch that caused delays as CrowdStrike was updating Microsoft security. The software problem was fixed early Friday morning, he said, but it would take time for the patch to work its way through the 2-3 million servers in Microsoft’s data center.

“We’re seeing improvements by the minute now,” Gagnon said Friday afternoon. “By Saturday morning, it will have worked through systems worldwide. People just have to hang tight.”

Gagnon said all businesses should have contingency plans for how to function when their technology fails.

In central Maine, workers at Augusta’s MaineGeneral Medical Center were using pen and paper Friday morning after the outage affected some of  the hospital’s IT systems, according to communications director Joy McKenna, who noted that patient care and scheduling were unaffected.

A number of computers at the Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan were also offline, according to a hospital representative, though she did not know the extent of the impact.

JETPORT FLIGHTS CANCELED

In the jetport terminal, many of the screens that show flight information displayed error messages. Gate agents announced that all Delta flights were grounded until 8 a.m. No boarding announcements were made for hours.

The departures board at the Portland International Jetport shows major disruptions Friday morning amid a technology outage that grounded flights across globe. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Many travelers had to manually check in when they arrived at the airport. Dozens of people were standing in line at their gates to try to rebook connections. Despite the delays, people were staying calm and many seemed resigned to sitting or lying on the floor while they waited for updates.

Zachary Sundquist, assistant airport director, said information from impacted airlines began trickling in overnight, starting with an announcement from Breeze about delays. By 8 a.m., Breeze and JetBlue were resuming some flights to Portland and several Southwest and American flights had departed, he said.

Sundquist said in the afternoon that all of the airport’s systems were up and operating. Passengers traveling Thursday night and Friday morning were very understanding, he said.

Anyone scheduled to travel Saturday was encouraged not to try to contact the airlines Friday because they were inundated with passengers trying to change their Friday flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration said United, American, Delta and Allegiant airlines had all been grounded across the United States.

AGENCIES AND FIRMS COPE

The Maine Department of Public Safety, which includes dispatch centers, was not impacted by the outage, according to spokesperson Shannon Moss. Dispatchers at the Cumberland County Regional Communications Center said that while 911 and radio systems were not affected, they were writing information down on paper as a backup.

The state’s campaign finance system was down as a result of problems with CrowdStrike, the assistant director of the Maine Ethics Commission said. The Maine Office of Information Technology said Friday that it had not detected any disruption to state systems or services. MaineIT will continue to monitor its system, according to a spokesperson.

Some municipal services did go down, including the city of Augusta’s property tax payment system.

A woman walks past an arrivals and departure screen and other passengers waiting in the ticketing area of the Portland International Jetport on Friday morning. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Several Central Maine Power Co. customers reported being unable to pay their bills online as CMP communications manager Dustin Wlodkowski said the company was facing sporadic outages on its website and app, but no impacts to its power grid or line work.

People were also unable to buy tickets for shows at the State Theater and Merrill Auditorium Friday. PortTix, the ticketing service for the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Portland Ovations, posted an alert on its website stating its IT partners were “working diligently to restore service as quickly as possible.”

Wex, the Maine-based payment processing company, was “assessing and addressing disruptions within certain areas” of the business, a spokesperson said. They didn’t specify the exact issues or the extent of the problems. They said the company’s IT and customer service divisions were providing support to employees and users.

Sharon Rose, a morning anchor at News Center Maine, said in a Facebook Live video that the station had a single working computer Friday morning, forcing them to broadcast from the newsroom set. Some producers and staff stayed overnight to make sure the news would air Friday morning, she said.