August 07, 2024 – Microsoft has responded to previous accusations made by Delta Air Lines regarding issues with Windows and CrowdStrike. The airline’s CEO, Ed Bastian, had earlier stated that the company suffered losses of approximately $500 million due to a major IT failure last month, and they planned to seek compensation from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft. However, Microsoft has countered these claims, stating that Delta repeatedly refused their offer of free assistance and even ignored an email from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
In a letter addressed to Delta’s legal team, Mark Cheffo, Co-Chair of Global Litigation at the Microsoft-represented law firm Dechert, expressed, “Microsoft sympathizes with the impact the CrowdStrike incident had on Delta Air Lines and its customers. However, your letters and Delta’s public statements have been incomplete, false, misleading, and have damaged Microsoft’s reputation.”
The letter was written in response to Bastian’s interview with CNBC last week, where he criticized Microsoft’s system as and questioned the stability of Microsoft systems compared to Apple. He also revealed that over 40,000 of Delta’s servers were affected by a faulty CrowdStrike update. Microsoft’s response suggests that Delta’s issues might extend beyond just Windows server failures.
Cheffo stated in the letter, “Although Microsoft’s software did not cause the CrowdStrike incident, Microsoft immediately stepped in and offered free assistance to Delta following the July 19th failure. From July 19th to July 23rd, Microsoft employees repeatedly offered assistance, but Delta rejected this help every time, despite there being no charge.”
Microsoft further claimed that on July 22nd, an employee reached out to Delta offering support, but received a response stating that everything was “fine.” Ironically, Delta canceled over 1100 flights that day and another 500 the next day.
The letter continues, “Microsoft’s senior management also reached out multiple times to their counterparts at Delta, but the results were similar. Notably, on July 24th, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emailed Delta CEO Ed Bastian, but received no response.”
As Delta is the official airline for the US Olympic team, Bastian might have missed Nadella’s email due to his busy schedule flying to the Paris Olympics. Delta had to urgently fulfill its commitment to transport athletes to Paris during the CrowdStrike-induced flight cancellations.
Microsoft believes that Delta refused their help because they were actually trying to restore non-Windows systems. “It is becoming apparent that Delta might have declined Microsoft’s assistance because their most challenging IT system to restore – the crew tracking and scheduling system – is serviced by other technology providers like IBM, as it runs on their systems, not Microsoft’s Windows or Azure,” the letter stated.
This indicates that while Delta’s Windows system was affected by the CrowdStrike glitch, the resulting failures also impacted IT infrastructure provided by companies like IBM. Microsoft noted that Delta “clearly has not modernized its IT infrastructure,” making it more vulnerable to CrowdStrike failures than competitors like American Airlines or United Airlines.
Along with CrowdStrike, Microsoft has requested Delta to preserve documents related to the CrowdStrike failure. They also want the airline to retain all information pertaining to failures in the crew tracking and scheduling system operated on a mix of IBM, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, Kyndryl, and other technological platforms. Microsoft has stated that if Delta chooses to litigate, the company will “vigorously defend its rights.”
Earlier this week, CrowdStrike also denied responsibility for Delta’s operational halt and claimed that Delta had refused their on-site assistance.
Currently, Delta Air Lines is under investigation by the US Department of Transportation to understand the status of their recovery efforts.
