A Georgia state judge has ruled that Delta Air Lines can proceed with major parts of its lawsuit against cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which it blames for a catastrophic computer outage that forced the airline to cancel 7,000 flights in July 2024.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kelly Lee Ellerbe said on Friday that Delta may pursue claims of gross negligence, alleging that CrowdStrike caused the outage by pushing a faulty update of its Falcon cybersecurity software. The bug reportedly crashed over 8 million Microsoft Windows-based computers worldwide.

“Delta has specifically pled that if CrowdStrike had tested the July update on one computer before its deployment, the programming error would have been detected,” the judge wrote in the ruling. She also cited public comments by CrowdStrike’s president admitting the company did something “horribly wrong.”

The court also allowed Delta to pursue a computer trespass claim and a limited fraud claim, alleging that CrowdStrike falsely assured it would not install an “unauthorized back door” into Delta’s systems.

The Atlanta-based airline filed the lawsuit in October, estimating its total losses from the July 19 outage at \$550 million, partially offset by \$50 million in fuel savings. The disruption affected an estimated 1.4 million passengers and caused widespread delays that were slower to resolve compared to other affected airlines.

In response, CrowdStrike’s attorney, Michael Carlinsky, said Monday that he remains confident the case lacks merit and that any damages would be capped under Georgia law at “single-digit millions.”

Delta expressed satisfaction with the judge’s decision and reiterated its confidence in the strength of its case.

The case is Delta Air Lines Inc. v. CrowdStrike Inc., in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, Case No. 24CV013621.