(Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
The Department of Transportation is investigating Delta Air Lines over whether it's "following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions" related to the CrowdStrike update mess, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced today.
The agency is particularly concerned that Delta is not adequately compensating passengers after canceling thousands of flights since the start of the outage on Friday, including 400 on Tuesday. Delta leads all airlines with the most cancellations and delays, according to FlightAware.
"All airline passengers have the right to be treated fairly, and I will make sure that right is upheld," Buttigieg said on X.
In its defense, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said on Monday: “We’ve got everyone around the company working around the clock to get this operation where it needs to be.”
It looks like the airline is struggling to restore systems partly because around half of its IT systems use Windows. PCs and servers installed with both the OS and Crowdstrike’s cybersecurity software ended up bricking and displaying the “Blue Screen of Death” after CrowdStrike accidentally sent out a faulty update.
Delta has since had to send staff to manually fix and restore each affected Windows IT system. Those same computers also need time to synchronize their applications. “One of Delta’s most critical systems—which ensures all flights have a full crew in the right place at the right time—is deeply complex and is requiring the most time and manual support to synchronize,” Delta says.
Delta has been offering affected consumers the chance to modify their flights free of charge or cancel a flight with a full refund. In addition, the airline says it’ll reimburse passengers for any meals or hotels they booked due to the disruptions.
The wide-scale disruption is prompting speculation that CrowdStrike may face a wave of class-action lawsuits. It's unclear what caused CrowdStrike to send out a malfunctioning update to millions of Windows systems. But in a blog post over the weekend, the cybersecurity vendor said the faulty update “triggered a logic error resulting in a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems.”
CrowdStrike has published a new advisory and video with steps on restoring a Windows system. In the meantime, the Department of Transportation says airline passengers affected by the delays at Delta or other providers can contact them through a government complaint form.