International tech outage ripples into Alaska’s 911, airport, hospital and court systems

A massive international technology outage knocked Alaska’s emergency calling system offline for hours and continues to delay a handful of flights and other services, including state courts and some hospital functions.

Alaska was one of several states that experienced problems with 911 emergency call centers, prompting public service agencies to distribute alternate numbers. Before the service was restored, Wasilla police urged people not to keep trying 911, saying the number of callers testing the number was overwhelming dispatchers.

Alaska State Troopers said in a 6:45 a.m. notice that statewide service had been restored.

Airports in Anchorage and Fairbanks were experiencing multiple flight delays with several cancellations across multiple airlines at Ted Stevens Anchorage International, according to state transportation officials. Delays and cancellations were expected to continue into Saturday as airlines resumed operations.

Alaska Airlines said it was not significantly affected by the outage, according to Ted Stevens International airport spokesman Erik Peterson. Other airlines reported the following delays or cancellations out of Anchorage, he said: Delta Air Lines had four flight cancellations; United Airlines had three cancellations; and American Airlines had one delay.

“It’s actually really calm,” Peterson said after a quick walk around the airport Friday morning. “United and most Delta flights are in the evening, so it remains to be seen what happens tonight.”

The airport was open with the “vast majority” of flights uninterrupted, he said, encouraging anyone with questions about their own plans to contact their airlines directly.

Fairbanks International Airport also warned travelers of potential disruptions due to the outage. The airport reported three delayed flights Friday.

The state’s three largest hospitals in Anchorage reported some issues continuing into Friday.

Providence Alaska Medical Center spokesman Mikal Canfield said all care centers in Alaska were impacted to varying extents starting late Thursday night.

“Other than isolated, minor exceptions, this has not impacted patient care,” Canfield said by email.

“All our facilities remain open for urgent and emergent patient care and at this time, no elective procedures have been postponed or canceled,” he said, adding that all respiratory therapy appointments Friday have been cancelled and will need to be rescheduled.

A spokesman for Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, which operates Anchorage’s Alaska Native Medical Center, said emergency services and specialty clinics remained open Friday as officials “organized an incident command to urgently restore all systems at the Alaska Native Medical Center and campus-wide.”

Spokesman Shea Siegert said in an email the consortium is “prioritizing solutions in clinical areas, using downtime procedures as needed, and continue to provide the highest level of patient care possible.”

Alaska Regional Hospital spokeswoman Kjerstin Lastufka said in an email that Regional has not been directly impacted by the technology issue and “we are working with our vendors to understand any issues they may be facing. We do not expect the incident to impact our ability to provide care to our patients.”

Alaska state courts officials warned Friday morning that the agency’s online system may be slow. Officials said most hearings Friday were expected to proceed but there may be some delays. They recommended anyone who planned to contact a court about a “non-emergency matter” not call or come in.

“Our tech team worked overnight getting us operational, but we are still working to get back to 100%,” officials said in a social media post Friday morning. By 11:15 a.m., under 12 hours after issues began, officials said they were back to “full functionality and business as usual.”

The 911 outage began in the three trooper dispatch centers in Fairbanks, Wasilla and Soldotna around 9 p.m. and was fully resolved around 4 a.m., according to troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel.

“Some dispatch centers were more impacted than others, with some remaining partially operational during the outage and others having no ability to take calls through their digital call taking systems,” McDaniel wrote in an email. “Dispatch centers switched to analog phone systems or to partner dispatch centers that were not impacted to continue taking calls for service and dispatching emergency services across the state.”

Public safety officials are reviewing those systems and continuity plans “to ensure that we can safeguard against these types issues as much as possible in the future,” he said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.