Boeing has been found not liable for defrauding LOT Polish Airlines. A jury from a US district Court in Seattle determined that Boeing had not defrauded LOT by withholding information about changes to the Boeing 737 MAX jet’s Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). LOT had been attempting to sue Boeing for $153 million in damages, following the enforced grounding of Boeing 737 MAX jets between March 2019 and December 2020, which resulted from the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
LOT’s Case against the Boeing 737 MAX
LOT had told the court that it had lost $153 million in revenue from being unable to use its Boeing 737 MAX jets, while the aircraft had been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) between March 2019 and December 2020.
The FAA took this decision in the aftermath of the Lion Air Flight 610 crash in October 2018, and the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash in March 2019. 346 passengers lost their lives in these two crashes, which were both later linked to the planes’ MCAS.
The MCAS was designed to prevent a Boeing 737 MAX’s nose pitching up mid-flight. A flaw in the system led to faulty activations during both the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashes, causing the planes to nose dive unexpectedly.
LOT alleged that Boeing had defrauded it by withholding information about the MCAS prior to LOT purchasing the jets in 2017.
Its initial complaint claimed that withholding information about the MCAS amounted to:
“purposeful and negligent false representations and omissions concerning the 737 MAX aircraft.”
The court’s verdict
After a two-week trial, US district Court in Seattle determined last Friday that Boeing had not defrauded LOT. A Boeing spokesperson said that the airline was:
“gratified by the jury’s verdict in our favour today.”
Boeing had previously entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice over its role in the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, which involved the airline paying $1.1 billion in fines.
This was the first time an airline’s challenge to Boeing regarding the company’s management of the 737 MAX had gone to trial. Juries have previously awarded damages to the families of those killed in the Lion Air Flight 610 crash, however.
Future Legal Challenges
LOT did not rule out the possibility of appealing the decision, with the airline saying that,
“as the legal process may not yet be concluded, LOT will not comment further on the details of the proceeding at this stage.”
A trial surrounding Boeing’s role in the death of Michael Ryan from Cork, Ireland, is set to begin on Aug. 3, 2026. Ryan, who worked for the Irish branch of the United Nations, was a passenger on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
If you have been impacted by issues with the Boeing 737 MAX, please share your story in the comments.
