Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Boeing settles 63 Max crash suits
Half of cases in 1st jet accident; dozens in 2nd one pending
CHICAGO — Boeing has settled about half of the lawsuits filed in federal court over the October 2018 crash of a 737 Max jet off the coast of Indonesia.
A Boeing spokesman said Friday that the company has settled 63 cases tied to the crash of a plane flown by Indonesia’s Lion Air.
The company did not disclose terms of the settlements.
A lawyer for Boeing revealed the pace of negotiations with families of passengers during a hearing in federal district court Thursday in Chicago.
Plaintiff and defense lawyers have declined to disclose how much money the company agreed to pay in the settlements.
Many of the lawsuits blame Boeing for not telling pilots about a new flightcontrol system that repeatedly pushed the nose of the plane down before it crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 189 aboard.
Boeing faces dozens of additional lawsuits over the second Max crash in Ethiopia. The same flight-control system has been blamed for that crash.
Previously, Boeing had indicated it would request that Lion Air cases be moved to Indonesia, where the plane was maintained. A federal judge hinted last month that there was some merit in the argument to move the case, but he did not issue a formal ruling.
Max jets have been grounded worldwide since
March, and Boeing got no new orders for the plane for several months. The Chicagobased company got a boost this week, however, when Turkey’s SunExpress announced it will buy 10 more Max jets, and a startup budget carrier in Kazakhstan said it plans to order 30 Max jets.
For the past year, Boeing has been making changes to flight software on the Max. The company recently said it expects Federal Aviation Administration approval in January for pilot-training maTesla
terial. That would be the last major step before U.S. airlines can resume using their Max jets, but first Boeing must demonstrate its work on one or more certification flights with the FAA, which have not yet been scheduled.
Last week, FAA Administrator
Stephen Dickson said “there is a lot of pressure to return this aircraft to service quickly.” He told agency workers to take the time they need to ensure that the Max is safe before it flies again.
Separately, a key lawmaker said this week he wants an investigation of FAA oversight of repair shops, citing a Florida company that repaired a sensor that misfired during
the Lion Air flight, triggering the nose-down action of the plane.
Indonesian investigators said the sensor was likely not calibrated properly during repair.
Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said revelations about Xtra Aerospace made him question the work of the FAA, which has 729 inspectors to police more than 4,000 repair shops. The FAA revoked Xtra’s certificate last month, although the company said the punishment was not related to the sensor on the Lion Air jet.