Was it the psychic wrath of disgruntled passenger Vanilla Ice? (See: “Vanilla Ice goes crazy after missing Delta flight.”)
Was it the hacking alluded to in a seemingly innocuous and not-at-all-foreboding Delta tweet from just a couple days ago?
Vacation hack: Take one, instead of just talking about it.
— Delta (@Delta) August 6, 2016
Was it, as news reports would have it, just an unfortunate technical failure, which fried the airline’s global check-in system?
Whatever the cause (and it’s almost definitely #3), Delta spent most of this morning addressing a global inability to move any passengers — meaning that as competitors American and United conducted business as usual, Delta … did not.
For evidence, take a look at this map:
A live look from @flightradar24 at air traffic over the United States. Zero @Delta flights over the United States. pic.twitter.com/awAOr00LSb
— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) August 8, 2016
Airlines, obviously, prefer that their planes are in the air, versus on the tarmac, awaiting customers who can’t check in. The knock-on effects were, as you’d expect, not great:
Power outage led @delta flights to unexpected delays. #delta pic.twitter.com/gj0qnQRJwo
— Himel (@HmlChy) August 8, 2016
At press time, the airline reported that a solution to the original equipment failure had been resolved — but of course, downstream cancellations and delays will plague Delta, its planes, and its passengers for days.
If you’re headed on vacation, our thoughts are with you.
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