Delta cancellations, delays extend into Tuesday following outage

ATLANTA — Hundreds of Delta Airlines flights were canceled and delayed Monday after an equipment failure caused a catastrophic power outage for the airline, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country.

Delta said on Monday night the cancelations will extend into Tuesday, with at least 100 flights already being canceled and another 200 flight to be delayed.

Delta's operations center lost power, which caused a global computer system outage and forced an hourslong ground stop of all Delta flights worldwide. Nearly 500 flights have been canceled so far.

Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft told WSB that the problem was not on their end, confirming switchgear on Delta's campus had gone down.

"Switchgear is a collection of equipment that is used to switch and protect the station," said WSB  senior engineer Gary Pearcy, who manages similar equipment that keeps the television station on the air.  Pearcy said that the switchgear manages multiple electric sources into the building and keeps equipment safe from power surges.

Even if the switchgear goes down at the station, WSB- -- like Delta, presumably -- has a series of backups.

First, a generator will kick on to keep the place running. And if that doesn't work, there's plan B, in which we have a whole room full of batteries to keep the station going.

"Delta probably had some kind of catastrophic failure that took everything, even their backup systems, offline, which left them dead," Pearcy said.

And while Delta works to figure out why, one leading cybersecurity analyst believes foul play is possible, but unlikely.   "It didn't really seem to me that there would have been a clear threat motive that was fueled by any sort of 'hactivism' that was widely apparent in chatter," Tony UlcedaVelez, with VerSprite, said.   UlcedaVelez said most bad actors would have taken credit by now, had they been involved.   While Delta has put out updates through its website on the impact of the event, the airline has said little about the malfunction itself.

But industry experts told Diamant that Delta has teams trying to figure out why the switchgear failed, what happened to the backup systems and how to keep this from happening again.

Passengers wait hours for new flights

Passengers throughout the country were stuck inside the airport as Delta’s systems went down Monday.

Consumer advisor Clark Howard said this is not the first time this has happened to a major airline.

"The Delta meltdown is not a rare thing in the airline industry," Howard said.    Delta CEO Ed Bastian said employees are working "all hands on deck" to deal with the aftermath of canceled and delayed flights.

Tamissa Murphy, who was trying to get to Jacksonville from Atlanta, said it was a slow going  Monday afternoon.

"I think that I could have rented a moped and got there faster," Murphy said.   The flight board at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport said Lorna Cleveland's trip to Ohio was canceled.    "I'm a roll with the punches kind of girl, so whatever happens, happens. Eventually, I'll make it there," Cleveland said.

Delta said Monday afternoon it was providing $200 in travel vouchers to all fliers with a delay of more than three hours, or a canceled flight.

Howard said Delta's reputation is on the line.

"The real test for Delta once they finally get people to wherever they're going is how Delta deals with people after the fact," Howard said.

For  Murphy, money might not be enough. "I probably won't fly Delta anymore," she said.

Southwest Airlines also had a meltdown a few weeks ago. It sent travelers apology notes and half-price vouchers for future travel.

Cox Media Group