Angry passengers sue mob attack over disruption-related flight cancellations

Several consumers filed a class-action lawsuit against CrowdStrike today, claiming the company should pay damages for the July 19 outage that resulted in thousands of airline cancellations.

The trio filed suit in a Texas district court, saying the outage canceled or delayed their flights, forcing them to pay extra fees and deal with physical stress.

“Faced with increasingly long delays and increasing flight cancellations, many travelers had no choice but to spend hundreds of dollars or more on additional meals, lodging or other travel arrangements while desperately searching for a way to their destination. them”, the lawsuit states. “This action is intended to remedy these consequences of CrowdStrike’s negligence.”

One plaintiff, Julio del Rio of California, had his flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles canceled and ended up paying $1,200 for a new ticket to bring him to San Francisco after being stranded for 11 hours at Hawaii’s Kona International Airport .

“Plaintiff del Rio had no choice but to sleep on benches or on the floor during the 11-hour delay. As a result, plaintiff del Rio suffered neck and back pain that lasted for several days,” the lawsuit states.

Additionally, del Rio has not received a refund for his original ticket. After landing in San Francisco, he tried to buy a ticket to Los Angeles. But thanks to the blackout, his only option was to buy a ticket traveling from the San Jose airport to Burbank, California. That charged him another $80 Uber fee to get him from San Francisco to San Jose.

“As a result of the nearly 17 additional hours of travel, Plaintiff del Rio was forced to use his paid time off to miss an additional day of work,” the lawsuit adds.

Another plaintiff, Jack Murphy of Ohio, also experienced a flight cancellation due to the disruption. He was able to fly to Cleveland on July 20, arriving at 2:30 a.m. local time.

“Due to the late hour, Plaintiff Murphy was unable to hire an Uber to drive him from the Cleveland airport to his home. As a result, Plaintiff Murphy’s wife was forced to drive to the airport to pick up Plaintiff Murphy, a trip of approximately 45 minutes each way,” the lawsuit states.

Murphy did not arrive home until 3:30 a.m., “which severely disrupted Plaintiff Murphy’s normal sleep schedule,” the complaint adds. “The disruption of Plaintiff Murphy’s sleep schedule caused him to suffer from a migraine during the day of July 20, 2024. Plaintiff Murphy experienced dizziness, headaches, sensitivity to light, and nausea due to the migraines.”

The lawsuit seeks compensation from CrowdStrike, alleging the cybersecurity vendor was negligent, created a public nuisance and engaged in unlawful business practices under California’s Unfair Competition Law. The lawsuit seeks class action status for “air travelers who had flights delayed or canceled as a result of the CrowdStrike outage” — but only in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where the three plaintiffs reside.

However, the lawsuit estimates that “millions” of individuals may have been affected since thousands of flights were canceled on July 19 and the following days.

That was especially true for Delta Air Lines, which is also preparing to sue CrowdStrike. However, CrowdStrike claims it contacted Delta to offer “on-site assistance,” but Delta ignored it and then declined the offer. Last month, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the agency was concerned that Delta was not adequately compensating passengers after the flights were canceled.

CrowdStrike did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company said last week that it had already restored over 99% of affected Windows computers

A group of the company’s shareholders is also suing CrowdStrike over the outage that has depressed the cybersecurity vendor’s stock price.