JUST AFTER FIVE in the morning on Monday, Delta sent out an alert every traveler dreads. “Delta has experienced a computer outage that has affected flights scheduled for this morning.”
Two hours later, Delta added discouraging details: The outage in Atlanta had crippled its mission control center—the NASA-inspired room that keeps Delta’s global fleet running. Soon, static check-in lanes clogged airports and gate agents started writing boarding passes by hand. Passengers slept on airport floors or sat in parked planes, even as departure boards and smartphone apps wrongly told them everything was running great.
