An 83-year-old father has been missing for a week after the CrowdStrike outage canceled his flight home, officials say.
Patrick Bailey Sr. was set to fly back to Northern California last Sunday after visiting his sister in Orlando, Fla., when his Delta flight was canceled because of a Crowdstrike computer update that triggered a massive global tech outage July 19, disrupting thousands of flights and wreaking other havoc.
“We really are at a loss to figure out how to find him,” Bailey’s worried son, Patrick Bailey Jr., told WESH in a weekend report.
Bailey Sr., a former long-haul truck driver who was once in the Navy, had checked into a hotel for the night after his flight was canceled and left the next morning, forgetting his cell phone at the hotel, kin said.
The elderly man later bought a bus ticket that passed through Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico, his son told WFTV.
Investigators were working Saturday to try and get footage from a Wendy’s restaurant in Louisiana where his debit card was reportedly used.
Authorities were looking at surveillance footage to see if it was Bailey Sr. who used his card.
“Nobody got any notices about him getting home. Nobody had heard from him,” his son said.
“The problems really started because he forgot his cell phone at the hotel, and we really don’t have any other ways of communicating with him or finding out where he is at,” his son added.
“He hasn’t shown up at home. We’ve had people check his house.”
Bailey Jr. said his father was recently hospitalized with a back injury. The son said he hopes his dad didn’t attempt to make the trek home with a rental car.
“I just don’t think he’s physically up for the drive of going all the way across the country with his current condition,” Bailey Jr. said.
“Hopefully, this is all going to end well and we’re going to find him, but it is a reminder that time is fleeting,” he added.
Anyone who sees Bailey Sr. is asked to contact the Orlando Police Department.