Boeing’s ‘very bad’ emails to aid crash victim cases
LOS ANGELES: Internal emails from Boeing Co. employees could strengthen the legal case for families claiming the company’s push to minimize the training needed for new 737 Max aircraft contributed to two crashes that killed 346 people. Employees bragged about fooling the Federal Aviation Administration into thinking pilots who’d flown older 737 models would need only computer training to fly the new version, emails released by the company show. Those comments support lawsuits claiming Boeing compromised safety to sell jets—and may increase its liability, said Justin Green, an attorney representing 32 families of people who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash last year.
Both the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air plane that went down in the Sea of Java in 2018 have been blamed on the 737 Max’s Maneuvering Characteristics
Augmentation System.
Since then, all 737 Max planes were grounded, sales of Boeing jets plunged, and CEO Dennis Muilenburg lost his job last month. The shares tumbled, and the company faces wrongful-death lawsuits filed by victims’ families that could cost $2 billion to settle, as well as legal battles with investors, pilots and workers. On Thursday, under pressure from lawmakers as it seeks to get the 737 Max flying again, Boeing disclosed a new trove of internal documents related to development of the aircraft. The company had turned them over to investigators for the FAA and Congress last month.