“Embarrassing” and “Pathetic” and “I’m Sorry”: Here’s What Some Delta Pilots Say About the Airline’s Meltdown

Most of the nation—if not the world—knows about Delta Air Lines’ mega-meltdown that started with software vendor CrowdStrike’s crash last week. While other airlines were affected and bounced back relatively quickly, Delta is suffering a high-profile snafu. Based on everything I read, Delta recovered from the initial CrowdStrike problem around the same time other carriers did. The problems now seem to lie in the airline’s crew scheduling and tracking program (which also has something to do with CrowdStrike on some level).

While conducting some online research, I found some interesting quotes either attributed to or made by Delta pilots. They range from heartfelt apologies to frustration with Delta to worries about profit sharing.

Redditor “BeechGuy1900” wrote a thoughtful and insightful post. Here are some of the main points:

I love this company. I don’t think there is anything remarkable different from an employment perspective. United and American have almost identical pay and benefit structures, but I’ve felt really good while working here at Delta. I have felt like our reliability has been good and a general care exists for when things go wrong in the operation to learn how to fix them. I have always thought Delta listened. To its crew, to its employees, and above all, to you, its customers.

That being said, I have never seen this kind of disorganization in my life. As I understand our crew tracking software was hit hard by the IT outage and I first hand know our trackers have no idea where many of us are, to this minute. I don’t blame them, I don’t blame our front line employees, I don’t blame our IT professionals trying to suture this gushing wound.

…

So to all the Delta people on this subreddit, I’m sorry. I obviously cannot begin to fathom the frustration and trials you all have faced. But us employees are incredibly frustrated as well that our “Great” and “Most Awarded” Air Line has fallen to its knees disappointing and inconveniencing so many of you. I have great pride in my fellow crew members and Frontline employees. But I am not as proud to be a pilot for Delta Air Lines right now. You all deserve so much better

Redditor “Declanmar” said their flight was delayed for maintenance reasons — and the captain apparently flat-out stated, “It’s been an embarrassing whole weekend for Delta.”

Things get spicy over on the AirlinePilotForums site.

“Salt Water” said, “Complete s__ show . I’m sure Delta management will tell us how great of a job they are doing. They are pathetic at best in handling these events. Time for a change.”

I don’t think pilot “CloudMonkey” is a member of Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s fan club.

“I wonder how many customers will book away from Delta in the coming months. Thanks Ed!” they wrote in one post. In another, they said, “(I’m) sure Ed will still get his multi-million dollar bonus, we’ll do more stock buybacks, and in a matter of weeks everyone will forget what just happened. In the meantime we probably burned 1/4 billion dollars this weekend because of poor leadership. That’s probably about $50 (million) right out of our pockets in lost profit sharing.”

“This is a known problem we’ve seen it before but nothing has been really done to remedy it,” said “Hotel Kilo,” adding, “(perhaps) this event will be a catalyst for some real change in that regard.”

“We’re down 28-3 right now, but we do have an employee named TOM BRADY to lead us out of this mess right…right,” commented “MrBojangles” referencing Delta’s odd decision to hire the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback.”

“velosnow” wrote that, “…we’ll get the usual mea culpa and empty promises to do better. Meanwhile, we’ll keep…Doing Everything Like The Amish.”

“Crown” responded, “(This). No change will come from it. Someone will quietly be shown the door, a patch or two in the software, promises of fixing things. And for awhile, aside from some finicky things, it’ll work out fine. Then the next meltdown will happen, and we’ll be in the same place.”

Finally, “DeltaboundRedux” said, “I love this company. It breaks my heart when this stuff happens.”

Final Approach

As with most situations, it’s interesting to see people’s range of emotions. There’s obvious frustration with Delta’s upper management. Some pilots are sad. Some are hopeful things will improve down the road while others remain pessimistic.

Here’s hoping everyone is back in the air soon!