AUGUSTA, Ga. – Augusta’s main air carrier, Delta Air Lines, is taking legal action against Crowdstrike over an IT outage in July that grounded flights and stranded thousands of people.

The outage was “catastrophic” for Atlanta-based Delta, the airline said in its complaint.

Delta said it estimates the outage will cause the airline $500 million in out-of-pocket losses as well as “future revenue and significant harm to its reputation and goodwill.”

The meltdown caused problems for Delta’s flights in and out of Augusta Regional Airport, but the problem was much greater at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s headquarters and main hub.

Most Delta passengers departing from Augusta have to change planes in Atlanta, and many Augusta passengers go directly to Atlanta to fly from there.

“CrowdStrike committed a series of intentional and grossly negligent actions that caused a global IT outage on July 19, affecting 8.5 million computers,” the airline said in a statement. “While CrowdStrike attempted to characterize its actions as simple learning opportunities, the truth is that CrowdStrike took shortcuts, circumvented certifications, and deliberately created and exploited an unauthorized gateway within the Microsoft operating system to distribute the faulty update.”

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT:

Delta is seeking compensation for losses resulting from the IT outage.

A CrowdStrike spokesperson said the company was trying to resolve the dispute; One of its lawyers said in August that CrowdStrike’s liability to Delta was less than $10 million.

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