…

CrowdStrike is striking back.

The company said it was not responsible for the extended meltdown at Delta Air Lines late last month, in which the US And technical outages affecting the rest of the world’s airlines saw days of cancellations and delays.

Want more aviation news? Sign up for TPG’s free bi-weekly aviation newsletter.

Delta CEO Ed Bastin said on CNBC last week that the outage and its aftermath cost the airline $500 million and that it would seek damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft. CrowdStrike provides security software for Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which runs several Delta technologies. Thousands of Microsoft-based networks and systems were accidentally set live after a flawed CrowdStrike software update crashed.

In a memo sent to staff members, the airline said it would pursue legal claims against the tech companies and retain well-known law firm Boies Schiller Flexner.

But in a letter sent to Delta Sunday night, which was reviewed by TPG, CrowdStrike’s outside legal counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan pushed back against Bastian’s comments, accusing him and the airline of “creating a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is for Delta.” Responsible for IT decisions and response to outages.”

“If Delta were to take this path, Delta would have to explain to the public, its shareholders and ultimately a jury why CrowdStrike took responsibility for its actions—quickly, transparently and constructively—when Delta did not,” said Michael Karlinski, a partner at Quinn. Emmanuel, wrote in the letter.

While admitting fault for the initial outage and reiterating the apology, CrowdStrike said Delta refused on-site assistance during the outage and Bastian did not respond to direct reaches from the tech firm’s CEO.

CrowdStrike pointed to the fact that rival airlines, which were forced to ground their flights during the initial outage, restored their operations more quickly than Delta. While there were delays and cancellations after a fix was developed for the outage, most rivals, including American Airlines and United Airlines, returned to normal within a day or two, while Delta struggled for nearly a week, canceling more than 5,000 mainlines. Flights between 19 July and 25 July.

In the letter, CrowdStrike’s lawyers suggested that Delta’s IT infrastructure lacked the “design and operational resiliency capabilities” of other airlines, and said that its liability was limited to “amounts in the single-digit millions” based on contracts with the airline. .

RELATED: How to Get a Refund If You’re Stranded on Delta Air Lines

In public communications after the initial outage, Delta cited problems with crew scheduling software, while an internal memo to staff, seen by TPG, repeatedly offered incentives to off-duty crew members to take trips as the airline struggled to accommodate displacement. Crew back into position.

Baston said Delta used more CrowdStrike and Microsoft products in its systems than other carriers, which meant the airline’s systems were more disrupted by outages than those of its competitors.

“If you have access, priority access, to the Delta ecosystem in terms of technology, you have to test this stuff,” Bastin told CNBC last week, referring to a faulty CrowdStrike software update that caused the outage. . “You can’t come into a mission-critical 24/7 operation and tell us we have a bug. It doesn’t work.”

A Delta spokeswoman said the airline had no further comment in response to the Crowdstrike letter, and pointed to Bastian’s previous statements.

Millions of computers in businesses and sectors ranging from airlines and airports to banks, government agencies and television networks were disabled during the outage. While some airlines were completely grounded until the fix was delivered, other carriers that don’t use CrowdStrike services continued to operate without disruption.

Related Reading: