IT security firm CrowdStrike has rejected claims by Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian that it was responsible for a major operational meltdown that stranded tens of thousands of passengers after a bug-riddled software update crashed Microsoft Windows-enabled computers worldwide.
In a new letter to the Atlanta-based carrier, attorneys acting on behalf of CrowdStrike say that any compensation owed by the company to Delta is “contractually capped at an amount in the single-digit millions”.
Delta has publicly confirmed that it has hired a premier law firm to seek compensation from CrowdStrike and Microsoft to cover the estimated $500 million loss it incurred from the outage that snowballed into a multi-day meltdown when the airline lost track of its pilots and flight attendants.
Bastian has firmly blamed CrowdStrike for the meltdown, accusing the company of failing to properly test a software update before pushing it to users worldwide.
The CrowdStrike letter says that it is “highly disappointed by Delta’s suggestion that CrowdStike acted inappropriately and strongly rejects any allegation that it was grossly negligent or committed wilful misconduct” in connection with the software update.
CrowdStrike says it tested and validated the software update before pushing it to customers, but the validation process did not detect a bug that caused Microsoft-powered computers to crash.
The letter continues, “CrowdStrike worked tirelessly to help its customers restore impacted systems and resume services to their customers. Within hours of the incident, CrowdStrike reached out to Delta to offer assistance and ensure Delta was aware of an available remediation.”
In fact, CrowdStrike’s attorneys say the company’s CEO personally reached out to Bastian to offer its own engineers to help on the ground at Delta but received no response from the airline.
Should Delta pursue litigation against CrowdStrike, the company says Delta “will have to explain to the public, its shareholders and ultimately a jury why CrowdStrike took responsibly for its actions – swiftly, transparently, and constructively – while Delta did not”.
Delta has yet to explain why it was so badly impacted by the IT outage while its rivals were able to recover quickly within hours. The airline has, however, admitted that a crew scheduling system that was taken offline by the software bug failed to catch up with schedule changes once it was eventually brought back online.
CrowdStrike says Delta will have to explain to a court whether it has invested enough in its IT infrastructure in recent years to ensure “operational resiliency”.
“As I am sure you can appreciate, while litigation would be unfortunate, CrowdStrike will respond aggressively if forced to do so,” the letter concludes.
Last week, Bastian promised its employees two free flights to anywhere in the airline’s network to award staffers for their ‘heroic’ efforts during the meltdown. Bastian also boasted about Delta’s operational reliability in recent days, although restoring public trust in the beleaguered carrier may take a lot longer.
