UPDATE: Delta tech outage draws scrutiny from U.S. DOT

Friday’s massive IT glitch linked to a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike on Microsoft cloud computing services continues to cause disruptions as the new week begins.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport over the weekend, and the misery continued Monday as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Delta Air Lines canceled more than 800 flights.

Delta’s ongoing tech woes have drawn scrutiny from U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“I have made clear to Delta that we expect the airline to provide prompt refunds to consumers who choose not to be rebooked, and free rebooking and timely reimbursements for food and overnight hotel stays to consumers affected by the delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance to all of their passengers,” Buttigieg said in a statement.

WSB-TV reported Sunday that hotels were full and rental cars all sold out stranding even more passengers inside the terminal. Some passengers complained that airlines weren’t paying for hotels or food during the crisis.

According to FlightAware , Hartsfield-Jackson has the most cancellations at any of the world’s largest airports. The cancellations and delays are also causing longer delays at security and causing chaos at baggage claim.

The outage took a toll on local businesses, government offices, and public services on Friday as well, but the majority had recovered by the weekend.

CrowdStrike confirmed the outage stemmed from a defect in a single content update for Windows hosts. “This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” the company stated. “The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Microsoft reported fixing problems with its Azure Service and Microsoft 365 apps, though some services still experienced residual impact.

This is an ongoing story. Check back for updates.

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