'Frustrated': Delta flight disruptions continue, KCI travelers impacted

KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Cass, Miami, Franklin and Douglas counties with an emphasis on Lawrence. If you have a question about your community or a story idea, send Lily a tip .

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Following the global CrowdStrike IT outage on July 19, flight disruptions for Delta continued Tuesday as the airline canceled hundreds of flights, adding to the thousands canceled over the weekend, and travelers at KCI were not exempt from the chaos.

As customer complaints mount nationwide, the U.S. Department of Transportation opened an investigation into Delta Air Line's services Tuesday morning.

Jason Gould/KSHB

Joshua Eaton was one of 700 people to travel to Kansas City last week for a hospital charity event.

"We were actually supposed to depart yesterday (Monday), last night," he said.

Delta provided Eaton and his mom with a hotel voucher Monday night, just to wake up to another canceled flight Tuesday morning.

"No text, no call, no nothing," Eaton said about the canceled flight.

Delta Air Lines attributes its ongoing delays and cancellations to issues with scheduling pilots and flight attendants.

“When you look down the counter at MCI (KCI) and all the other airline counters are empty and just getting people through, and then you look at the Delta counter and it looks like you’re in line for a Taylor Swift concert, it’s just ridiculous," Eaton said.

Delta canceled 475 flights across the country as of Tuesday evening, with eight of those being at KCI, making up all of the canceled flights at Kansas City's international airport on Tuesday, according to FlightAware .

Eaton said he can't take any more chances — he needs to get home for work.

Despite his bad knee, he rented a car and is driving home to Milwaukee on Tuesday.

“I would estimate right now, that just from these delays alone, we’re out $600," Eaton said.

Eaton said if he has the choice, he'll never fly Delta Air Lines again.

Flight disruptions affected Leawood resident Garret Prather, his wife and three children differently.

Jason Gould/KSHB

“We were delayed in Boston for a few hours with our family but we were able to get home late Friday night, but our bags did not come with us, and so, that’s why we’re now on day five-plus of trying to get our bags back," Prather said.

Prather worked remotely at KCI on Tuesday while also working with Delta to locate his luggage.

“It’s a first-world problem, I will definitely emphasize that, but it’s also something that we’re just trying to get figured out," Prather said.

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