CrowdStrike denies liability for Delta’s flight disruptions

The firm criticised Delta’s “public posturing” about a potentially baseless lawsuit and advocated for a cooperative resolution to avoid protracted legal battles.
Delta

CrowdStrike has denied Delta Air Lines’ claim that it is responsible for the flight disruptions caused by a 19 July global outage. Delta CEO Ed Bastian stated that the outage, which resulted from a faulty update, cost the airline $500 million and indicated plans to pursue legal action against the cybersecurity firm.

CrowdStrike has apologised but rejected allegations of gross negligence, asserting that its liability is contractually limited to a few million dollars. The company also noted that it had offered Delta assistance immediately after the incident and that its CEO had personally contacted Delta’s CEO without receiving a response.

Delta cancelled over 6,000 flights during the outage, affecting more than 500,000 passengers. The airline is under investigation by the US Transportation Department for the extended recovery time compared to its competitors. CrowdStrike has questioned why Delta’s competitors managed to recover faster and why Delta declined its offer of free onsite help, which other clients accepted.