CrowdStrike says Delta refused its offers help after global tech outage

CrowdStrike, the company linked to the global tech outage in July, is denying claims that it was responsible for Delta’s prolonged meltdown that lasted days and led to flight cancellations and delays.

A legal battle is unfolding between CrowdStrike and Delta as the airline attempts to recover costs lost during the outage.

Michael Carlinsky, CrowdStrike lawyer and co-managing partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, wrote a letter to Delta’s lawyers on Sunday saying the carrier refused onsite assistance from CrowdStrike.

“Within hours of the incident, CrowdStrike reached out to Delta to offer assistance and ensure Delta was aware of an available remediation” and that its CEO, George Kurtz, personally reached out to Delta CEO Ed Bastian “to offer onsite assistance, but received no response,” Carlinsky said. 

GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OUTAGE DISRUPTS MAJOR AIRLINES, 911 SERVICES AND BUSINESSES

When CrowdStrike followed up with Delta on the offer of onsite support, it was told “resources were not needed,” Carlinsky continued. 

CrowdStrike’s lawyers are arguing that Delta’s public threat of litigation has “contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage.” 

Carlinsky’s note came just days after Bastian sent a letter to staff saying the company alerted CrowdStrike and Microsoft it was pursuing legal claims against the companies to recover losses caused by the outage, and that it had already hired New York-based Boies Schiller Flexner to do so.

In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bastian said the company had “no choice” given that it took a hit from lost revenue as well as compensation and hotel costs for displaced passengers. Bastian pegged the negative impact that the carrier faced at “half a billion dollars in five days.”

DELTA CEO SAYS CROWDSTRIKE OUTAGE COST AIRLINE HALF A BILLION DOLLARS

Bastian also claimed during the interview that CrowdStrike only offered “free consulting advice to help us.”

Delta Air Lines declined additional comment. Boies Schiller Flexner did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment. 

Airline employees wait by a departures monitor displaying a blue error screen after airlines grounded flights due to a worldwide tech outage caused by an update to CrowdStrike’s “Falcon Sensor” software that crashed Microsoft Windows systems, in Newa (Reuters/Bing Guan / Reuters)

A CrowdStrike spokesperson told FOX Business that “public posturing about potentially bringing a meritless lawsuit against CrowdStrike as a long-time partner is not constructive to any party.” 

The company hopes Delta “will agree to work cooperatively to find a resolution.”

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CrowdStrike said the global issue, which impacted airlines, emergency services, banks, hospitals and other businesses on July 19, stemmed from a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

While rival carriers were able to swiftly get back up and running within a day or two, problems at Delta lasted for nearly a week, prompting an investigation by the Transportation Department.