Dozens of frustrated, tired and angry travelers waited at the Spirit Airlines ticket desk at LAX early Friday desperate for help, underscoring the many disruptions caused by technology disruptions that have plagued air travel around the world.
“They’re not going to do much,” an airline worker warned would-be passengers shortly before 8 a.m. He asked if any flights from Thursday had been canceled and advised that “the best bet is to get a refund online.”
Among those who spoke to the workers for guidance Eli Osei, 20. He had a flight scheduled for 23:49 on Friday. The flight was first pushed back to 12:10, then to 12:57.
“Then the communication stopped and then it was cancelled,” said Osei, as he stood with two suitcases stacked on a luggage cart.
Osei said he put the two suitcases in and tried to sleep, but only closed his eyes for 40 minutes before an announcement by an airline employee woke him up. Nothing can be done.
“That makes a lot of sense,” Osei said, noting that it was a software problem. “No one seems to have an answer. You can’t blame anyone.”
Don’t blame the airport, perhaps. But there has been a lot of finger-pointing.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said the problem it believed was behind the outage was not a security incident or cyber attack. The company said the problem occurred when it installed the wrong update on a computer running Microsoft Windows.
Osei had been in LA for an internship and was unable to return to the Airbnb where he was staying. A new guest has taken his place.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “I imagine I could be here for a while.”
Elissa Moore, 29, and her family had been visiting LA for a week before heading to the airport on Thursday night to catch a flight to Nashville, near where she lives. The group of six – including two children – arrived at LAX around 7:30pm for the 10:08am Spirit flight. They were told that they would board the plane manually and some people boarded the plane. Then, he said, the passengers were let go and the flight was cancelled.
Moore said he was told to go to the ticket desk for more information. But when they went to the departures desk, they were told that Roh employees had no information.
The family retrieved their checked bags, but were unable to because the computer-aided system was down.
“We can’t even take checked bags to get a hotel room to leave,” she said.
The family slept on the floor overnight, along with others whose flights were cancelled. Some people wait in line to speak with agents and sleep in their places, Moore said.
Some slept on the conveyor belt until airport employees came around 3 or 4 a.m. yelling for them to wake up, he said.
“It’s terrible. It’s horrible,” he corrected himself. “Because we’re still going through it.”
Moore, who on Friday morning sat barefoot and crossed near the growing line for the Spirit’s departure ticket desk, said that everyone had been pushed out and “there was no food.” She said she was worried about her 2-year-old and 10-month-old children, who slept in their strollers in pink pajamas.
“What am I going to give the baby for breakfast,” he said. “I’m planning on staying in bed now… my biggest concern is getting food.”
She had formula for the baby, she said, but she had the time allotted to go home today “not two days later.” He went down and he said there was a store downstairs and he couldn’t go through security to access the food court, because he didn’t have a ticket at this time.
“It’s a hot mess,” she said. “Just to see people keep coming in and they don’t care about the people who have been here overnight. Not an ounce of concern. They’re trying to get people to keep their money.”
His best friend worked at a bank, so Moore said he knew it was beyond his influence at the airline.
“Airlines should be equipped for this,” he said. “Why don’t we have travel cots for people? Why don’t we have formula? What about baby food? I know it’s a business, but if you’re going to have something like this, you have to be equipped.
“They say if you miss your flight — which they call instead of saying your flight is canceled — there’s nothing they can do for you and call 1-800,” Moore said. “And the 1-800 number told me that they had no information, that their system was down.
“We’re really just sitting here. Our flight was canceled, we can’t rebook, we can’t even talk to them about refunds. They said because the system is down, they can’t talk about refunds but ‘make sure you call in 24 hours to get a refund.’”
Gabrielle Watson, an LA-based DJ and music producer, arrived at LAX on Thursday night to catch her 11:59 United Airlines flight to Chicago with a connection in Columbus, Ohio, so she could play Friday at the Secret Dreams Festival. . The artist knew there was a problem right away when he got to the gate. However, her flight took off and she stayed on the plane for several hours as delays plagued the airport. The captain said there was a technical problem.
After about three hours on board, Watson finally turned back and headed home, knowing he wouldn’t make the connecting flight in Chicago. Her flight was canceled about five hours after its scheduled departure time.
When he returned to the airport, the scene was dire.
“It’s chaos. There are a lot of angry people,” he said. “They spread out on the floor everywhere, trying to get comfortable waiting for information. It was very stressful and a bit dark.
Now Watson is worried that he will lose the salary that should have earned him a set.
“I’m quite upset,” she said. “I’m not used to playing daytime sets and I’ve prepared a fun set… I’m quite sad that I don’t remember.”
Naval officer Jade Noble, 27, flew Friday morning to LAX from San Diego for a connecting flight to Honolulu before deploying to Guam. But his connection to Hawaii was canceled and would not be rescheduled for another five to seven days, he was told, ruling out the start of the first deployment.
“I don’t know how I will check in a week or two later,” she said about the possible loss of the start date for her order. A friend drove to Los Angeles to bring him back to San Diego while he waited for his new flight.
The only silver lining, he said, is getting extra time with loved ones.
Syeda S., 35, arrived at LAX at 7pm Thursday night to visit Washington, DC, with her two children. They have packed enough to keep food and comfort for the overnight flight – not for almost 15 hours stay at the airport.
At 2 a.m. she said her children and others waiting for their flights at the terminal were cranky and hungry. Airport workers deliver boxes of food to people waiting because the grocery store is closed.
On Friday morning, her 3-year-old daughter came down with a fever and her 2-year-old boy passed out while his brother slept on his mother’s lap. Syeda said she was frustrated that the airport was not prepared for this possibility.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
