Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper

The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review

Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
News >  Business

Delta computer outage included ‘small fire’ at data center

By Scott Mayerowitz Associated Press

NEW YORK – As flight cancellations and delays move into their fourth day, Delta Air Lines isn’t providing details on a “small fire” Monday at its data center and whether that fire – or attempts to extinguish it – compounded the airline’s troubles.

Delta’s problems started early Monday morning when a piece of electrical component at its Atlanta headquarters failed, CEO Ed Bastian told the Associated Press on Wednesday. That led to a shutdown of the transformer providing power to the airline’s data center. The system moved to backup power but not all of the servers were connected to that source, which caused the cascading problem.

But that initial failure also caused a fire. The airline is refusing to detail the extent of that fire – and the damage it caused.

“The equipment failure sparked a small fire. It was put out immediately and there was no need to call the fire department,” Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said via email Thursday.

The airline would not say how the fire was extinguished or if the means of putting it out damaged any other electrical equipment or any of the computer servers.

Delta has canceled more than 2,100 flights so far this week, the most of them happening Monday and Tuesday. But Thursday morning still had some headaches for travelers, with FlightStats.com reporting at least 30 Delta flight cancelations and nearly 300 other delays. Some were due to the computer problems and others were due to bad weather, the airline said.

Bastian, on Wednesday, said that Delta knew it had to make technology upgrades “but we did not believe, by any means, that we had this type of vulnerability” regarding its flight operations and reservations systems.

Delta takes pride in having one of the best on-time records and rarely canceling flights. Bastian said this week’s problems do not reflect his airline’s long-time track record or what he foresees for the future.

“We’re going to do everything we can to make certain it does not ever happen again,” he said.

The Spokesman-Review Newspaper

Local journalism is essential.

Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below. Gifts processed in this system are not tax deductible, but are predominately used to help meet the local financial requirements needed to receive national matching-grant funds.

Active Person

Subscribe now to get breaking news alerts in your email inbox

Get breaking news delivered to your inbox as it happens.