Choose to be kind: The Airport Crowdstrike Edition
Like tens of thousands of people across the aerospace community, I am flying to London this weekend to attend the Farnborough International Airshow. Like all of you, I woke Friday to the CrowdStrike news and wondered how long it would take for me to get to London.
I was connecting through Phoenix to LHR on British Airways. The screen in the attached image was waiting for me at my gate.
The good news was that our flight was going to make it, just be a bit late. The bad news was that several of us had boarding issues that required we step out of line and get a new boarding pass, just as the flight was boarding. I was one of the “lucky” ones that needed a new boarding pass.
A guy a few people in front of me was losing it, yelling at the gate staff, and demanding to be put back at the front of the boarding line. It was taking quite awhile to reticket each person because the networks were so slow Friday night. They eventually boarded him. When I got to the counter I told the staff that I knew they had not caused the global internet crash and I thanked them for their hard work under difficult circumstances. I’m not always this nice of a traveler, but I just couldn’t help having empathy in that moment.
The general flying public has no idea of the amount of data required to safely complete one single commercial passenger flight, and the complex systems required to manage that data. There were many canceled flights yesterday, but even with a global IT meltdown, tens of thousands of fights got to their destination safely. It was the hard-work and attention to detail from thousands of airline workers that made that happen yesterday.
I made it to London, and I’m ready for the airshow. This is thanks in part to the incredible Phoenix gate agents from BAW flight 288 on July 19th. If someone reading this is from British Airways, please pass along this note with sincere thanks from me.
Remember this the next time uncontrollable circumstances mess up your travel plans, because you can choose what to be today. Choose to be kind.