The latest salvo in the ongoing dispute between Delta and CrowdStrike has occurred. This stems from a CrowdStrike IT outage more than two weeks ago which led to an operational meltdown for the Atlanta based carrier. CrowdStrike responded to Delta’s threats of legal action with a scathing letter that was first reported by David Slotnick. In it, CrowdStrike’s outside counsel stated:
“Delta’s public threat of litigation distracts from this work and has contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage.”
Michael B. Carlinsky, CrowdStrike Outside Counsel
Well, it doesn’t get much more blunt than that.
There are a few key points in the letter that I want to focus on (the full letter can be found in the embedded tweet below) that call into question Delta’s response to the outage and subsequent recovery efforts. The CrowdStrike CEO apparently reached out to Delta CEO Ed Bastian directly to offer assistance but got no response.
The letter explains that, should the airline pursue legal action, they will need to explain to the public, its shareholders, and a jury:
- Why Delta’s competitors, facing similar challenges, all restored operations much faster.
- Why Delta turned down free onsite help from CrowdStrike professionals who assisted many other customers restore operations much more quickly than Delta.
- That any liability by CrowdStrike is contractually capped at an amount in the single-digit millions.
- Every action, or failure to act, by Delta or its third-party service providers, related to the Channel File 291 incident.
- The design and operational resiliency capabilities of Delta’s IT infrastructure, including decisions made by Delta with respect to system upgrades, and all other contributory factors that relate in any way to the damage Delta allegedly suffered.
New: CrowdStrike accuses Delta of creating a “misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage.” Letter from CrowdStrike’s outside counsel: pic.twitter.com/OMD3iY6U9M
— David Slotnick (@David_Slotnick) August 5, 2024
CrowdStrike certainly didn’t pull any punches in the letter and it will be interesting to see how the airline responds. Many Delta executives and employees believe that the airline did nothing wrong and are placing the blame squarely on CrowdStrike.
CrowdStrike on the other hand, notes that Delta took longer than every other carrier to resume normal operations and that Delta turned down offers of support from the company. While the two will likely settle out of court, I can’t imagine Delta wants all of the items outlined above to come to light, this has the potential to get interesting should the two sides go to court.
Summary
CrowdStrike’s outside counsel has responded to Delta’s threats to sue the company to recover the $500 million dollars lost as part of an operational meltdown triggered by a CrowdStrike IT outage last month. The letter outlines many things that the carrier will have to explain to customers, shareholders, and a jury should a case go to trial. Based on the items outlined in the letter, I can’t imagine Delta would want those items made public.
Only time will tell if the two companies settle out of court or if we are at the beginning of a long, messy legal battle.
Figured this is what would happen…. and my sources within Delta all said from day one that the internal communications from leadership that didn’t miss a single opportunity to call it a CrowdStrike-caused problem were setting up for litigation…. and all of them said if it goes to court then a lot will come out in the wash that is not favorable to Delta. Sounds like CrowdStrike is on the same page with that.
The airline that knows that it knows how to do everything best and doesn’t want any help is going to have its private life put on display if this goes forward.
I get the sense that the airline actually believes it has no blame here. I’m assuming that they weren’t expecting such a forceful response from CrowdStrike that basically said, “bring it on.”
Delta generally turns down any pitches for ideas or products brought to it. Anything from outside is generally disregarded. Having been in the Atlanta community, not just on the business side from a Delta competitor, but as someone who personally was involved in several civic programs amongst community leaders, helping with local political campaigns, etc., a common answer both in the affirmative and negative is “Well, it’s Delta.” I agree… they aren’t used to someone getting uppity with them…
It is definitely going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out.