Documented losses by passengers could reach millions of dollars

A proposed nationwide class action has been filed against Austin-based CrowdStrike on behalf of thousands of travelers who were left stranded and collectively incurred millions of dollars in losses when a faulty software update caused systemwide outages and major disruptions to Delta Airlines in late July.

According to the lawsuit, Delta canceled more than 5,000 flights between the start of the outage on July 19 and July 25.

The litigation was filed this week in federal court in the Western District of Texas in Austin by Iowa residents Christopher and Sara Harlan, whose return Delta flight from a vacation in the Dominican Republic was cancelled. The couple was forced to make alternative travel arrangements and pay hundreds of dollars in unreimbursed expenses for hotels and meals before they could return home.

“We’re fortunate that through the class action system individuals can collectively litigate and recover losses when individual lawsuits might not be practical,” says Warren Burns of Dallas-based Burns Charest LLP, an attorney for the proposed class. “While other litigation is underway or pending, this filing targets CrowdStrike and the impact of this massive and avoidable IT outage on Delta's customers.”

According to the lawsuit, Delta relied heavily on CrowdStrike for its Windows-based computers and terminals, which crashed and had to be manually rebooted over several days. Delta could not even locate many of its flight crews because that information was in the computers, the lawsuit adds.

“As a result of the failed update, Delta’s passengers still have unreimbursed losses for missed flights and connections, replacement flights, other travel costs, hotel bills, meals away from home and the lost value of concert tickets and other events they missed because of their canceled flights,” says co-counsel Rob Shelquist of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP in Minneapolis.

Earlier this month, litigation was filed by passengers over the alleged failure of Delta to provide full refunds promptly for cancelled flights. In public statements, the airline has indicated consideration for bringing its own lawsuit against CrowdStrike.

“We believe that CrowdStrike knew of the dangers of pushing out an ill-designed and poorly tested software update on a Friday,” says co-counsel Charles LaDuca of Washington, D.C.-based Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca LLP. “This outage was no accident and at the very least could have been minimized had CrowdStrike acted responsibly.”

The proposed class action is Harlan v. CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. and CrowdStrike Inc., No. 1:24-cv-00954, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division.

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