The row between Delta Air Lines and tech giant Microsoft received a new chapter. In a letter sent out on Tuesday, Microsoft said that Delta refused its help in the aftermath of a global IT outage that caused the airliner to cancel thousands of flights.
The global IT outage was a result of a faulty software update by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike that caused computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system to crash. The outage caused disruption across a number of industries, including aviation, healthcare, finance, and media.
While Delta wasn’t the only airliner hit by the outage, it was one that seemingly had the most trouble to recover. It had to scrap an estimated 5,000 flights across several days, with CEO Ed Bastian saying the airliner suffered a loss of $500 million and that it intends to sue Microsoft and CrowdStrike for damages.
Responding to Bastian’s claims, Microsoft said on Tuesday that they offered help to Delta in the aftermath of the global IT outage on a number of occasions, but their approaches were rejected.
“Even though Microsoft’s software had not caused the CrowdStrike incident, Microsoft immediately jumped in and offered to assist Delta at no charge,” said the company in a letter penned by its lawyer Mark Cheffo, an attorney at Dechert.
Additionally, Microsoft claims that the outdated IT technology used by Delta was the main reason why it needed longer to deal with the outage.
“Our preliminary review suggests that Delta, unlike its competitors, apparently has not modernized its IT infrastructure, either for the benefit of its customers or for its pilots and flight attendants,” Cheffo added.