Boeing directors face fresh $6b lawsuit over 737 Max fatal crashes

Boeing could pay up to $6 billion (Sh696 billion) at the end of litigation in damages to compensate the victims, investors and airlines, and fines following two separate plane crash in Indonesia and Ethiopia which killed 32 Kenyans in 2019.

The lawsuit was specifically against Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s former CEO, David Calhoun, Boeing’s current CEO and Mark Forkner, former Chief Technical Pilot for Boeing, the only Boeing employee charged with a crime after the two fatal crashes of the Boeing.

“2.5 billion have already been paid by Boeing to settle the criminal fraud charges filed against them by the US DOJ.

Prior to that Boeing paid 100 million to assist the families and communities involved in these two tragedies,” explained von Ribbeck.

The Ethiopian Airlines jet headed for Nairobi, Kenya crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport in March 2019, killing all 149 on board. Another plane of the same model was involved in a crash less than five months earlier when a Lion Air flight crashed into the sea near Indonesia with nearly 190 people on board.

In court documents filed Thursday in a US Federal Court in Chicago by Ribbeck Law Chartered against Boeing on behalf of one of the victims, Manuel von Ribbeck explained that prior to the crashes Boeing called Indonesian pilots ‘Idiots’ for wanting more training for the aircraft.

Aeroplane’s systems

Boeing internal documents and emails relating to the 737 MAX 8 crashes show employees discussing the requests for more training on the aeroplane’s systems. An email from 2017 from Boeing Pilot Mark Forkner stated that “Lion Air might need a sim to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity. I’m scrambling trying to figure out how to unscrew this now! Idiots.”

The complaint also alleges that Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s former CEO, concealed the Boeing Max 8’s problems and instead blamed the airline’s pilots and maintenance practices. “