Delta Air Lines is being sued by a group of passengers following a massive tech outage in July that led to widespread flight cancellations.
The lawsuit claims that Delta mishandled refunds and failed to provide adequate support to stranded travelers, according to CNN.
The legal action, which seeks class action status and made public on Wednesday in Atlanta federal court, emerges as Delta, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft dispute responsibility for the July 19th outage that crippled Delta and numerous other companies worldwide.
The lawsuit says Delta's inability to recover from the CrowdStrike-related outage left passengers stranded, often far from home.
Plaintiffs allege Delta refused automatic refunds for canceled flights and offered partial reimbursements only if passengers waived legal claims.
The airline is also accused of not providing necessary meal, hotel, and transportation vouchers, forcing travelers to incur significant expenses.
Delta struggled to restore normal operations through the weekend, leading to over 1,250 flight cancellations on Monday, July 22, which accounted for nearly 70% of all domestic cancellations that day.
According to the lawsuit, Delta canceled over 4,500 flights between July 19 and July 21.
One plaintiff, who was flying from Denver to Amsterdam, experienced cancellations both ways and had to book new flights at personal expense.
Despite being told that refunds would be automatic, Delta later required a formal request, offering only a $100 voucher for future flights in response to nearly $2,000 in expenses, the passenger said in the lawsuit.
Other affected passengers reported having to take alternative transport, such as Greyhound buses, due to fully booked hotels and car rentals.
One plaintiff, John Brennan of Florida, said he and his wife missed a $10,000 anniversary cruise after being stranded in Atlanta on a layover, but Delta offered just $219.45 in compensation.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg expressed concern on social media about Delta's operational recovery and said an investigation into the incident would continue.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike distributed a faulty update to its Falcon Sensor security software leading to widespread problems with Microsoft Windows computers running the software. This resulted in a significant global outage on July 19 affecting more than eight million computers.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian has attributed the outage to CrowdStrike and has claimed it cost the airline $500 million.
CrowdStrike and Microsoft, in their defense, argued that Delta ignored their offers of assistance and pointed to outdated IT systems as a factor in the prolonged disruption. They accused Delta of mismanaging the situation and shifting blame.
