A distressed father claims his three kids — all under the age of 16– are still stuck in three different airports following last week’s global IT outage.
via Complex:
On Monday (July 22), Georgia man J. R. Reed told the news outlet that he spent more than 20 hours on phone and online communication to ensure that his three children, ages 10, 12 and 15, safely return home. “My oldest is currently stuck in Charlotte,” he told WSB-TV. “My middle child is stuck in LaGuardia (New York) and my youngest is stuck in Orlando.”
Reed reportedly has a Million Miler status for Delta Air Lines, the company which he clearly has frustrations with now. The children were separately visiting relatives ahead of a family trip to Disney World when the outage struck, before which the two oldest children were to fly to Orlando to meet with the youngest sibling. But on Saturday, Reed’s 15-year-old son was unable to board his flight in Charlotte. Reed’s 12-year-old daughter was also prevented from boarding her flight from New York.
“Delta had instituted an embargo on their unaccompanied minors program and would not be allowing any unaccompanied minors to fly,” Reed said about the airline. “Delta made an explicit decision to pull the plug on this program. They haven’t communicated that and it’s incredibly hard to find on their website. There is no proactive notification.”
He continued, “You took my kids out and you’re responsible for bringing them back.”
Delta issued a statement on their website that reads, “Unaccompanied minor travel is currently paused through Tuesday, July 23. Those already booked will not be able to travel. Please do not book new travel for unaccompanied minors during this time.”
But as Reed doubts that the airline is prioritizing the safety of children, he calls the flight program a “money saving decision,” adding that the outage wasn’t a technology issue for Delta.
The global cyber outage disrupted computers that ran on Microsoft Windows due to a software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. According to online tracker Flightaware, by Friday afternoon, 4,000 flights had been canceled while 35,500 were delayed globally.
We’re sure his kids aren’t the only ones stranded and Million Miler status doesn’t make his kids any more special. Still, we pray for the safe return of everyone still dealing with flight delays from last week’s outage.
