Delta’s under investigation as it struggles to recover from the CrowdStrike debacle

The spinning wheel of death... has got nothing on the blue screen of disaster. Airlines canceled thousands of flights after last week’s CrowdStrike-caused software outage, which may be the biggest in IT history. But while most carriers are back to business as usual, Delta’s still stuck on the tarmac. The airline canceled hundreds of flights yesterday, and more than 5.5K since Friday, leaving passengers stranded. Now it’s under federal investigation.

• The Department of Transportation is investigating Delta over the drawn-out disruption and “reports of concerning customer service failures.”

• Delta said it’s cooperating with the agency and “working 24/7” to fix the issue. Rivals including American and United recovered relatively quickly from the incident.

Sorting through cyber-rubble… Lawmakers are calling on airlines to fully reimburse canceled flights instead of offering credits — similar to how Southwest Airlines had to shell out $600M in refunds after its 2022 holiday meltdown (recall: 17K canceled flights). The CrowdStrike outage affected around 8.5M devices, including ones at gov’t agencies, banks, hospitals, and major hotels like Marriott and Hilton Worldwide. The fallout could cost more than $1B. Businesses could file cyber-insurance claims for damages climbing into the tens of billions, and affected companies could sue CrowdStrike. The company’s shares have fallen more than 20% since the outage, and US lawmakers want its CEO to testify before Congress.