CrowdStrike fires back against Delta threat over flight outages
A global IT outage has caused days of frustration for travelers through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. (FOX 5)
ATLANTA - The cybersecurity firm involved in July's global tech outage is firing back at Delta Air Lines after rumors the airline may be looking for compensation for damages.
Crowdstrike says Delta should stop blaming it for days of flight disruptions, denying that it was not responsible for the Atlanta-based airline's losses.
Last week, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said that disruption to its operations cost the airline "half a billion dollars in five days."
Part of that amount included "the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels" for the five-day period, Bastian said.
The Atlanta-based airline hired prominent attorney David Boies, chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner, to pursue possible damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft, a source confirmed to FOX Business.
"We’re not looking to wipe them out, but we’re looking to make certain that we get compensated however they decide to for what they cost us," he said during an appearance on CNBC.
CrowdStrike called the threat of a lawsuit "misleading" and said the company would respond to any litigation.
The company also claimed its liability is limited because it offered on-site assistance to Delta but was denied.
Delta's flight problems after CrowdStrike outage
Among airlines, Delta was by far the hardest hit hard by the outage, having to cancel more than 6,500 flights, because key systems were crippled by the incident.
According to statistics from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Delta scrapped more flights in the last week than it did in 2018 and 2019 combined.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating why Delta failed to recover as quickly as other airlines. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week that the department would also examine Delta’s customer service, including "unacceptable" lines for assistance and reports that unaccompanied minors were stranded at airports.
On July 25, Buttigieg told FOX 5's Tyler Fingert that the agency had received more than 3,000 complaints from Delta passengers.
"When there is a disruption, you need to be able to get a hold of a customer service agent who can help you, someone who can make sure you get the vouchers for meals, hotels, rebooking, that kind of thing, and somebody who can get you on your way," Secretary Buttigieg said. "So, when we hear these reports of somebody having to wait in line for 8 hours to speak to somebody on the phone, people sleeping on the floor in airports because they weren't able to get accommodated or taken care of, that's a major concern and that's going to be a big focus of our investigation."
Six days after the original outage, Delta was able to resume operations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.