A widespread technology outage grounded flights, knocked banks offline and media outlets off air on Friday in a massive disruption that affected companies and services around the world and highlighted dependence on software from a handful of providers.

Sky Harbor Airport officials said in a statement posted at 4:24 a.m. today that “a global technology issue is impacting some flights. Travelers should check their flight status before coming to the airport.”

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.

A cyber security expert said internet outages will cause real harm as hospitals and other essential services are disrupted.

“There are going to be deaths because of this. It’s inevitable,’’ said James Bore, the managing director of cyber security consulting company Bores.

“We’ve got so many systems tied up with this. We’ve got emergency services. There are going to be excess deaths. People will die who wouldn’t have otherwise. And we’re not talking millions, but it is going to hurt people. And there are really serious consequences. That’s without getting into anything financial, which is of less importance. This is going to cause harm.”

Independent Newsmedia contributed to this report.