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The Biden administration has launched an investigation into Delta Airlines as the company continues to struggle from the fallout of the CrowdStrike failure.
The US Department of Transportation has received hundreds of complaints about the airline since Friday, when the cybersecurity company launched a faulty software update that brought down Microsoft systems globally, impacting retailers and top airlines.
While most airlines have since recovered, Delta is still working to get back on track. According to FlightAware, a commercial flight tracker, the company was leading the number of delays and cancellations at 779 and 460 on Tuesday.
“We’ve got everyone around the company working around the clock to get this operation where it needs to be,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a video message to employees on Monday. “Keep taking great care of our customers and each other in the coming days.”
The airline explained that more than half of Delta IT systems worldwide are Windows-based. The error required the company’s IT teams to manually repair and reboot each of the affected systems. One of Delta’s most critical systems, which makes sure all flights have a full crew, requires the most time and manual support to synchronize.
The DOT confirmed the investigation in a statement to The Independent. “This process will continue to evolve as DOT learns more and processes the high volume of consumer complaints we have already received against Delta.”
DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg added: “We have made clear to Delta that they must take care of their passengers and honor their customer service commitments. This is not just the right thing to do, it’s the law.
“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent.”
In a statement responding to the investigation, the airline said: “Delta is in receipt of the Department’s notice of investigation and is fully cooperating.”
The House Homeland Security Committee has called on CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to testify over the incident, which brought airline operations to a standstill and left billboards in Times Square blank on Friday.
Experts have said it may take days, or even weeks, to resolve the chaos caused by the outage across sectors, requiring millions of labor hours.
