CrowdStrike Disputes Negligence Claims in Letter to Delta Attorney

Software company says it offered free on-site assistance to help the airline fix IT issues during the outage.

Caleb Revill

Tuesday, August 06, 2024 at 10:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

A Delta A220 (Credit: AirlineGeeks/William Derrickson]

Key Takeaways:

Delta Air Lines attributes a July 19 IT outage, costing $500 million, to CrowdStrike and Microsoft, threatening legal action against them.
CrowdStrike vehemently denies gross negligence, stating they promptly offered an available fix and on-site assistance, which Delta allegedly declined, and argue Delta is responsible for its own IT decisions and slower recovery compared to competitors.
CrowdStrike is preparing for aggressive litigation if sued, demanding Delta preserve extensive documentation related to its IT infrastructure, incident response, and previous outages, while noting its contractual liability is capped in the single-digit millions.

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Temperatures are rising in the blame game between software company CrowdStrike and Delta Air Lines over responsibilities for the massive IT outage that impacted air traffic across the U.S. on July 19.

According to a letter posted on X by aviation reporter David Slotnick on Sunday, CrowdStrike attorney Michael Carlinsky told Delta attorney David Boies that it was misleading to say CrowdStrike was responsible for Delta’s IT decisions in response to the outage. Boies was reportedly retained by Delta to seek damages from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft after airline CEO Ed Bastian said the outages cost the company $500 million.