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There was chaos at Seattle Tacoma Airport on Saturday due to an internet and system outage


There was chaos at Seattle Tacoma Airport on Saturday due to an internet and system outage

An internet outage caused travel problems at Seattle Tacoma International Airport on Saturday, as the Port of Seattle confirmed that various systems had gone offline due to the blackout.

In a brief post on its official X-Account, SeaTac confirmed the internet and web outage at around 9 a.m. Saturday. As of 1 p.m., various systems were still affected by the outage and passengers were urged to check with their airline to see if flights would be affected.

Although the outage took several check-in systems offline, SeaTac remained operational and many flights are still operating as usual. According to Flight Aware, only 36 flights have been canceled from the airport so far.

However, passengers complained about long queues as airlines reverted to manual processes to check their customers in for flights.

One passenger who was scheduled to fly on a delayed British Airways flight from Seattle to London Heathrow on Saturday afternoon even said that check-in staff relied on handwritten boarding passes and took photos of passengers’ passports with their cell phones.

The outage appears to be affecting systems throughout the Port of Seattle, although it is not believed to be related to a larger outage. The Port of Seattle did not immediately confirm the reason for the outage.

Saturday’s internet problems in SeaTac came just weeks after the global CrowdStrike update failure caused travel chaos around the world. Although most airlines were able to quickly resume operations, Delta Air Lines is still under intense scrutiny for its response to the outage.

Delta continues to blame CrowdStrike for the days-long operational breakdown and is threatening to sue the internet security company if it does not pay compensation estimated at up to $500 million.

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Mateusz Maszczynski


Mateusz Maszczynski honed his skills as an international flight attendant with the Middle East’s most prominent airline and flew for a well-known European airline throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. A passionate follower of the aviation industry, Matt has become an expert in passenger experiences and human-centered stories. Matt always has his finger on the pulse and his industry insights, analysis and reporting are frequently used by some of the biggest names in journalism.

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