Missoula Airport Director on the Crowdstrike Computer Debacle

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - On Friday, July 19, the Crowdstrike Falcon System experienced a faulty update that affected millions of Windows PCs, causing them to be caught in what was termed a ‘boot loop’.

On Tuesday’s Talk Back show, ECON 101 featuring Grant Kier, CEO of the Missoula Economic Partnership, and Missoula Airport Director Brian Ellestad, the two discussed how the issue affected travelers here in Missoula.

Kier described the update malfunction.

Missoula ECON 101 Featured Grant Kier and Airport Director Brian Ellestad

“What made this really unique, in terms of actually what was happening inside the computer, is that people were sent this update, and the update put their computer into a constant reboot, and the only way to get out of that reboot was to actually understand how to turn the computer off and restart it in a very special mode that usually only experts know how to do,” began Kier.

Kier said expert knowledge was needed to solve the problem.

“For many systems across the world, it was up to somebody at that computer to turn it off, know how to turn it back on and reboot it in what's called ‘Root mode’, and then enter the code necessary to take the erroneous part of the software out of their operating system and reboot it again.”

Ellestad said the Missoula Airport Escaped Most of the Trouble

Airport Director Ellestad described how the outage affected Missoula travelers.

“Thursday night is when we saw it, where Frontier and Allegiant got hit,” said Ellestad. “Allegiant did okay, with only a minor delay Thursday night, but Frontier took a cancellation, and then we saw the big hit come Friday morning, and it really was United and Delta that were taking the big hits. American kind of chugged along as normal.”

One important point that Kier emphasized was the importance of an efficient transportation system, especially the airport, in helping to build the business community in Missoula.

Kier Emphasized the Importance of the Airport to the Missoula Economy

“Disruptions like that can have a big impact on people's impression of a community as well,” said Kier. “And so those are the things we're really mindful of when somebody comes to Missoula's airport and their first impression is, ‘Wow, this place is really slow getting us their bags. They really don't have things sort of organized. All of those little things are part of how we create the impression and the experience and the feeling that the business traveler has about coming to this place to do business, and it's really important to us as an organization, that we are always putting our best foot forward, so that we continue to welcome and encourage more people to come here to do business and experience this place.”

Listen to the entire Missoula ECON 101 program with Grant Kier and Brian Ellestad here.