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United Airlines sues Homesite over alleged refusal to pay CrowdStrike claim
The airline says Homesite would not cover $20.4 million in passenger compensation tied to the July 19, 2024 CrowdStrike outage, a dispute after other insurers paid full limits.
United Airlines has sued its cyber insurer Homesite Insurance Company in federal court in Chicago, arguing it refused to pay a $5 million claim related to the July 19, 2024 CrowdStrike outage.
According to the complaint, a defective CrowdStrike software update crashed millions of Windows systems worldwide and disrupted parts of United's operations. The airline says the outage forced it to cancel more than 1,600 flights, about 12 percent of its schedule, and left more than 200,000 passengers stranded during one of the busiest travel weekends of the summer.
United says the dispute is tied to passenger compensation it provided and says those payments were legally required by U.S. Department of Transportation guidance. The airline puts its total covered loss at $113.7 million, but says only $20.4 million in passenger compensation, covering meals, hotels, ground transportation, cash reimbursements and travel credits, is contested.
The lawsuit also describes layered coverage arrangements, with seven insurers across six layers reviewing the same loss and paying full limits. Homesite sits in the fourth excess layer alongside Indian Harbor Insurance Company, and United says Indian Harbor paid its 50 percent share up to a full $5 million limit while Homesite refused to pay its half.