According to an NPR news report, the U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge on Tuesday that Boeing had violated the terms of a deferred prosecution deal.
Boeing “could be subject to criminal prosecution for defrauding federal regulators.”
Kreindler partner Erin Applebaum spoke with NPR on their Morning Edition show.
June 2, 2023
U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso's Order
Judge rules ET302 airplane crash families can pursue damages from Boeing for “pre-impact emotional distress.”
Attorneys for Boeing had attempted to exclude evidence and argument about the passengers’ pain and suffering prior to the Boeing Max 737 crashing into the ground. Motion denied.
Kreindler attorneys Justin Green, Daniel Rose, Megan Benett, Brian Alexander and Marc Moller are featured in the Amazon Prime documentary film Flight / Risk. The documentary offers a glimpse into Kreindler’s work prosecuting the case against Boeing following two separate tragic 737 MAX aircraft crashes. View the Flight / Risk movie trailer.
May 4, 2022
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor apologized on Tuesday, May 3, to the Boeing Max victims’ families for not considering at the beginning of the case whether they were victims under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
Over 900 family members and friends of victims killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Boeing 737 MAX crash have signed and sent a letter to President Biden and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg requesting they replace the top management at the FAA. The letter details lapses in oversight among other continued failures by the FAA following the deadly Boeing 737 MAX tragedies. The victims’ families are committed to seeing that the current administration appoints FAA management that places the interests of the flying public above Boeing’s profit.
March 12, 2021
Partner Justin Green in Reuters Regarding Boeing to Deliver Reports
Long sought after investigation documents are expected to be turned over to plaintiffs attorneys by Boeing as part of the Boeing 737 MAX crash lawsuit. Attorney Justin Green and Kreindler & Kreindler represent the families of 32 victims who were tragically killed as a result of the March 10, 2019 crash.
January 11, 2021
Upcoming Developments:
Filing AC
Challenge to Deferred Prosecution
2nd Anniversary
The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that Boeing has entered into an agreement in order to resolve a criminal charge relating to the company’s conspiracy to defraud the FAA in connection with the evaluation of the 737 MAX airplane. A portion of the settlement includes $500 million allocated for a crash-victim beneficiaries fund. This agreement and fund are separate from the ongoing civil lawsuit filed by Kreindler & Kreindler and other law firms representing the families of victims. See Department of Justice release.
Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception...
The DOJ’s announcement includes the following description:
In and around November 2016, two of Boeing’s 737 MAX Flight Technical Pilots, one who was then the 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot and another who would later become the 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot, discovered information about an important change to MCAS. Rather than sharing information about this change with the FAA AEG, Boeing, through these two 737 MAX Flight Technical Pilots, concealed this information and deceived the FAA AEG about MCAS.
Boeing’s admissions in this deferred prosecution agreement should be a positive step for the plaintiffs as we pursue the civil case against Boeing and seek additional compensation for our clients.
The case continues to progress as we push the NTSB for the release of certain Boeing and FAA documents which the NTSB claims international law requires them to withhold until the completion of the Ethiopian government’s investigation of the ET 302 crash, or until the two-year anniversary of the crash, whichever comes first. We do not believe that any investigation remains ongoing in Ethiopia and, thus, we are fighting for the immediate release of the documents. You can read more about this effort at ProPublica.
September 17, 2020
The FAA should reevaluate the airplane as a whole and only permit it to fly if the FAA is completely satisfied that the 737 MAX is not a danger.
Over 2,000 friends and family members of victims killed in the Boeing 737 Max ET302 disaster sent a formal letter to Congress urging them not to allow Boeing to hide behind the curtain of “FAA certification.” Last week, a U.S. House subcommittee wrapped up their 18-month long investigation of the Boeing 737 Max certification process with a scathing report, concluding that “Boeing failed in its design and development of the MAX, and the FAA failed in its oversight of Boeing and its certification of the aircraft.”
The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its Subcommittee on Aviation released a damning report today on Boeing’s misconduct in connection with the design and certification of the Boeing 737 MAX. After an 18-month investigation, which included interviews of numerous Boeing personnel and whistleblowers, the report makes crystal clear that Boeing withheld critical system safety information about the MCAS from the FAA.
FAA sent a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for a Boeing 737 MAX airworthiness directive (AD) (pdf file) to the Office of the Federal Register for publication. “The NPRM proposes mandating a number of design changes to address an identified unsafe condition.” When the NPRM publishes in the Federal Register, a 45-day public comment period will begin.
On June 17, 2020, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation convened a hearing to examine the FAA’s oversight of aircraft certification. The hearing provided an opportunity for the committee to review issues associated with the design, development, certification and operation of the Boeing 737 MAX and to consider potential legislative opportunities to reform the FAA certification process for commercial aircraft.
We believe that Boeing and the FAA focused too much on meeting the minimum certification standards and not enough on making sure the MAX was safe. We will seek to ensure that manufacturers will not be permitted to attempt to escape responsibility for wrongdoing by hiding behind the FAA’s certification of a defective aircraft.
During the hearing, FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson agreed that the responsibility to produce a safe airplane belonged to Boeing and that the MCAS should have been included in the 737 MAX pilot manuals. He conceded that Boeing made mistakes in its manufacture of the plane, and the FAA also erred in its oversight of Boeing.
The next status conference is set for August 18, 2020.
Mr. Muilenburg has been apologetic in his testimony, but it is more important to my clients that Boeing do the right things than for it to say the right things.
Six Kreindler aviation attorneys have been appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee by Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the Northern District of Illinois federal court. The Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee will lead the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 investigation, discovery, and litigation against Boeing and other defendants.
Judge Alonso also selected Kreindler partner Justin T. Green as Co-Chair of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee.
In addition to Mr. Green, Kreindler partners and attorneys named in Judge Alonso’s order include:
Brian Alexander
Dan Rose
Anthony Tarricone
Megan Benett
Erin Applebaum
Firm partner Andrew Maloney, of Counsel Marc Moller, attorney Vincent Lesch and attorney Kevin Mahoney will also play important roles on the Kreindler team prosecuting the case.
Now that most families have retained counsel, it is time to do the hard work that must be completed to prepare the case for trial.
The court has accepted plaintiffs’ argument that discovery should commence, and there is currently a May discovery cut-off, so during the coming months, plaintiffs will be collecting the Boeing and Federal Aviation Administration documents we need and will also be taking the testimony of key witnesses under oath.
Kreindler attorneys have devoted our all to this important case, and we are proud of the support that we have received from our colleagues at the many other aviation law firms who supported our appointment.
The case will focus, in part, on the intertwined relationship between the FAA and Boeing, which allows Boeing engineers to act as designated FAA safety inspectors during the certification process.
Kreindler files additional lawsuits against Boeing and Rosemount Aerospace on behalf of the families of victims of the
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash. 26-year-old Virginia Chimenti of Italy,
who devoted her life to fighting world hunger, was lost as a result of the March
10th crash. Ghislaine De Claremont was tragically killed while traveling to Africa on the “trip of a lifetime” — a 60th birthday gift from
family, friends and colleagues.
Kreindler, along with co-counsel Powers, Rogers and Smith LLP filed two federal wrongful death lawsuits in Chicago, Illinois, against Boeing Company and Rosemount Aerospace on behalf of humanitarians Dr. Carlo Spini and his wife, Gabriella Viciani, who were killed as a result of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019.
Boeing violated a basic principle of aircraft design by allowing a single point failure to trigger a sequence of events that could result in a loss of control.
Please read our statement regarding
representing families in this tragedy.
The families of victims are urged not to accept any preliminary offer of compensation presented to them by Ethiopian Airlines since families who accept the airline’s initial offer may very well be prohibited from filing any subsequent legal actions against it and perhaps even Boeing.
Kreindler & Kreindler aviation accident attorneys offer to review correspondence and compensation offers from Ethiopian Airlines
or their insurer to family members of crash victims at no charge and with no
obligation. We will review the documents and correspondence and provide our
legal advice to the family or their representative free at no charge.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Accident
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane
On Sunday,
March 10th, for the second time in less than five months, a brand-new Boeing 737
MAX fell from the sky after reportedly encountering abnormalities with its
airspeed shortly after takeoff. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, departed Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, for Nairobi, Kenya, at 8:38 a.m. for what should have been an
uneventful two-hour flight between the two capital cities. But just six minutes
after departure, the aircraft suddenly began to experience abnormal variations
in its altitude and airspeed. The pilot notified air traffic control and was
granted permission to return to Addis Ababa. Moments later, the international Flight 302 was lost
from radar and crashed 17 miles southeast of the airport, killing all 157
people on board. The victims included citizens from 35 different countries,
including 8 Americans and 17 Canadians.
The
accident aircraft is the same model involved in the October 29, 2018, crash of
Lion Air Flight 601 over the Java Sea in Indonesia. Though the cause of the
disaster has yet to be conclusively determined, the available radar-based
flight data and the apparent onboard abnormalities that immediately preceded
the Ethiopian crash are strikingly similar to the final minutes of Flight 601.
It is
highly unusual for a brand new commercial aircraft flown by an experienced crew
to crash just minutes after takeoff — let alone two in five months. Due to these extraordinary circumstances,
several countries with air carriers flying the new 737 MAX have grounded the
plane, meaning no flights will be permitted until further notice. American
and European authorities are evaluating the situation and could yet take the
same action.
Similarities to the Crash of Lion
Air 601
The Lion
Air crash is suspected to have been caused by a malfunction in the plane’s
Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The MCAS was
intended as a safety feature and designed by Boeing specifically for the 737
MAX. In developing the new model, Boeing engineers fitted larger, more
fuel-efficient engines under the wings of the standard 737 by positioning the
new engines farther forward and higher up. Though relatively slight, this
redesign changed the aircraft’s aerodynamics and how it handles in certain
phases of flight. Specifically, the new design tends to cause an upward
pitching motion when flying manually, resulting in the plane’s nose
nudging skyward, putting the aircraft at risk of an aerodynamic stall — a risk
that is most prominent during takeoff and climb.
To address
this, Boeing added a new computerized system to the MAX: the MCAS. If the MAX’s
“angle of attack” (i.e., nose pitch-up) were to exceed a certain
threshold based on airspeed and altitude, the system would automatically tilt
the plane’s horizontal stabilizer trim upward to pitch the nose back
down.
In the
Lion Air crash, investigators believe that aircraft’s angle of attack
(AOA) sensor malfunctioned at some point before the crash, causing the
plane’s avionics system to mistakenly interpret that the aircraft was in danger
of stalling when it was not. Based on this faulty reading, the MCAS
automatically compensated by pushing the plane’s nose downward to avoid a
stall. This caused the pilots to lose control of the plane, which led to the fatal
crash.
Possible Cause
In all
aircraft, including earlier 737 models, pilots naturally pull back on the
plane’s yoke to raise the nose if the plane begins to pitch down. In
the 737 MAX, however, manual pullback of the yoke does not override the MCAS
trim system and the aircraft will continue to pitch down unless the pilot
disconnects the automatic trim system and trims the aircraft manually. It has
not yet been determined why the Lion Air pilots were unable to regain control
of their aircraft, but it has been widely reported that Boeing failed to
provide its operators with an adequate description of the MCAS system and
recommendations for pilot training in the event of a potential malfunction.
Almost immediately after the Lion Air crash, Boeing issued instructions to
airlines flying the 737 MAX to explain how pilots should react in the event of
erroneous readings from the plane’s altitude and airspeed indicators.
It is
particularly disturbing that despite having received training updates about the
MCAS system following the Lion Air crash, the pilots of Ethiopian Flight 302
were still unable to regain control of the months-old 737 MAX aircraft. This
strongly suggests a dangerous design issue that cannot be sufficiently
addressed by pilot action alone and highlights the need to address properly the evident danger presented by the particularities of the Boeing plane’s
design.
International
crash investigators, including teams from the Federal Aviation Administration
and the National Transportation Safety Board are actively examining the
wreckage of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 to determine the cause
of the disaster. Both of the flight’s data recorders have been located. Though
speculation is universally discouraged in the aftermath of an air crash, it is
nevertheless extremely alarming that a 737 MAX — Boeing’s newest version of
its most popular aircraft – has crashed for the second time in a matter of
months after experiencing significant, and presumably uncontrollable,
deviations in altitude and airspeed shortly after takeoff. As of Monday
morning, March 11th, aviation authorities in Ethiopia, China, Indonesia and the
Cayman Islands have grounded the countries’ 737 MAX jets. Of the domestic
carriers, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines operate the
737 MAX. All have indicated that they have no immediate plans to ground the
aircraft and have expressed confidence in the airworthiness of their fleets.
Boeing has similarly indicated that it does not intend to issue any new
warnings or advisories in the aftermath of the crash. The FAA has yet to
comment in this regard.
Kreindler & Kreindler
Kreindler
is one of the largest and most distinguished aviation accident law firms in the
world. Since 1950, our airplane crash attorneys have served as lead counsel in nearly every
major commercial aviation disaster litigation.
The
Kreindler firm is conducting its own investigation into the accident and is
available to answer questions and address inquiries regarding the Ethiopian
Airlines Flight 302 disaster. Our investigation will include a thorough
comparison between the flight data from the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the
available data from the Lion Air crash.
We wrote the book
Kreindler has written the book on aviation accident law. Our partners have authored numerous highly acclaimed books, articles and treatises, including the leading treatise in the aviation litigation field, Aviation Accident Law.
We believe that Boeing and the FAA focused too much on meeting the minimum certification standards and not enough on making sure the MAX was safe. We will seek to ensure that manufacturers will not be permitted to attempt to escape responsibility for wrongdoing by hiding behind the FAA’s certification of a defective aircraft.
Now that most families have retained counsel, it is time to do the hard work that must be completed to prepare the case for trial.
The court has accepted plaintiffs’ argument that discovery should commence, and there is currently a May discovery cut-off, so during the coming months, plaintiffs will be collecting the Boeing and Federal Aviation Administration documents we need and will also be taking the testimony of key witnesses under oath.
Kreindler attorneys have devoted our all to this important case, and we are proud of the support that we have received from our colleagues at the many other aviation law firms who supported our appointment.
The case will focus, in part, on the intertwined relationship between the FAA and Boeing, which allows Boeing engineers to act as designated FAA safety inspectors during the certification process.
