CrowdStrike rejects Delta Air Lines claims over flight woes

via X

CrowdStrike rejected a claim by Delta Air Lines that it should be blamed for flight disruptions, following the July 19 global outage sparked by a faulty update, suggesting it had minimal potential liability.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said last week the outage had cost the US airline $500 million and that it planned to take legal action for compensation from the cybersecurity firm.

CrowdStrike reiterated its apology to the airline operator, but said in a letter from an external lawyer that it is. "highly disappointed by Delta's suggestion that CrowdStrike acted inappropriately and strongly rejects any allegation that it was grossly negligent or committed misconduct."

Delta canceled more than 6,000 flights over six days, impacting more than 500,000 passengers. It faces a US Transportation Department investigation into why it took so much longer for it to recover from the outage than other airlines.

The CrowdStrike letter said that "any liability by CrowdStrike is contractually capped at an amount in the single-digit millions."

Delta declined to comment on the CrowdStrike letter.

Within hours of the outage incident, CrowdStrike reached out to Delta to offer assistance.

"Additionally, CrowdStrike’s CEO personally reached out to Delta’s CEO to offer onsite assistance, but received no response," the letter said.

Bastian told CNBC last week CrowdStrike had offered "free consulting advice to help us."

Delta told U.S. lawmakers last week that CrowdStrike’s faulty update, "impacted more than half of Delta computers, including many of Delta’s workstations at every airport in the Delta network."

The CrowdStrike letter said that if Delta files suit, it will need to answer, "why Delta’s competitors, facing similar challenges, all restored operations much faster" and, "why Delta turned down free onsite help from CrowdStrike professionals who assisted many other customers to restore operations much more quickly than Delta."

The letter added Delta's, "complex IT system which distributes and synchronizes all our data, including the data that feeds our crew tracking and gating software, required manual recovery."

A CrowdStrike spokesperson said, "public posturing about potentially bringing a meritless lawsuit against CrowdStrike as a long-time partner is not constructive to any party. We hope that Delta will agree to work cooperatively to find a resolution."

More from Business News

  • UAE-India Business Forum to be held in Mumbai

    The UAE-India Business Forum begins in Mumbai on Tuesday, September 10, aiming to explore new trade, investment and partnership opportunities between the two nations.

  • UAE's GDP hits AED 430 billion in Q1 2024

    The UAE's GDP reached AED 430 billion in Q1 2024, recording a growth of 3.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2023, while the non-oil GDP grew by four per cent compared to the same period last year.

  • UAE, Egypt strengthen ties in key sectors

    Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, has held talks with Lieutenant General Kamel El Wazir, Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development, Minister of Industry and Transport of Egypt

  • Boeing Starliner departs ISS without its astronaut crew

    Boeing's Starliner spacecraft landed uncrewed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, capping a three-month test mission hobbled by technical issues that forced the astronauts it had flown to the International Space Station to remain there until next year.

Blogs