西南航空因未及早停飞737 MAX被乘客提告
Boeing and Southwest Airlines conspired to hide flaws in the 737 Max jet, laws
uit alleges
July 15, 2019 The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/07/15/boeing-southwest-airl
ines-conspired-hide-flaws-max-jet-lawsuit-alleges/?utm_term=.547960529f8a
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of passengers who flew on the troubled plane b
etween Aug. 29, 2017 and March 13, 2019.
A new lawsuit alleges that Boeing and Southwest Airlines endangered public saf
ety by colluding to hide a design flaw in the 737 Max jet.
“This action seeks to hold Southwest and Boeing responsible for their reckles
s, greedy conspiracy to launch the defective 737 Max 8 and to keep it flying,
” says the lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern Dist
rict of Texas.
The suit was filed on behalf of nearly a dozen passengers who traveled on a 73
7 Max between Aug. 29, 2017 and March 13, 2019, the date the planes were groun
ded in the wake of fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 peo
ple.
“We intend to vigorously defend against the claims in the filing and strongly
believe that the allegations made are completely without merit,” Southwest s
aid in a statement. “Safety has always been Southwest’s most important respo
nsibility to both our Customers and our Employees and we stand ready to fully
comply with all requirements to safely return the Max aircraft to service.”
Officials at Boeing declined to comment on the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that Southwest is profitable in part because of its “coll
usive relationship with codefendent The Boeing Company (“Boeing")." It said t
hat because Southwest’s entire fleet consists of Boeing-built airplanes the c
ompany enjoys a special relationship with the aviation giant.
Southwest has 34 of the 737 Max 8 jets in its fleet of about 750 planes, the m
ost of any U.S. carrier. The airline has canceled flights on the aircraft thro
ugh Oct. 1.
Some of the allegations in the lawsuit, mirror other legal claims against Boei
ng, including those filed by victims’ families, who allege that the manufactu
rer failed to warn pilots and the public about issues with an automated anti-s
tall system known as the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system or MC
AS. Preliminary investigations into both the Oct. 29, crash of a Lion Air flig
ht and the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight point to a malfuncti
on with MCAS as a factor in both crashes.
The lawyers, who filed the suit on behalf of plaintiffs who reside in several
states including, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, New York and
Nevada, are seeking a jury trial. All the plaintiffs said they would not have
purchased tickets had they known about the dangers posed by the aircraft.