A French woman whose husband died in the crash of a Boeing 737
MAX airliner in Ethiopia has filed a U.S. lawsuit against the plane
maker, seeking no less than 276 million dollars in damages.
The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 in March killed all
157 passengers and crew aboard and followed the death in October of
189 people on a Lion Air 737 MAX, which plunged into the ocean off
Indonesia in similar circumstances.
Dozens of families have sued Boeing over the Lion Air crash, and
several lawsuits have been lodged over the Ethiopian crash near the
capital Addis Ababa, which led airlines around the world to ground
the Boeing 737 MAX.
“The lawsuit on behalf of Nadege Dubois-Seex, whose husband
Jonathan Seex was a Swedish and Kenyan citizen and chief executive
of the Tamarind Group of Companies, was filed in a U.S. District
Court in Chicago,’’ her lawyer said on Tuesday.
The complaint, which was filed on Monday, alleges Boeing failed
to inform pilots properly about the risks posed by software meant
to prevent the 737 MAX from stalling which repeatedly lowered the
plane’s nose due to a faulty sensor data.
U.S. attorney Nomaan Husain told a Paris news conference his
client was seeking a minimum of 276 million dollars in damages.
“We have learned that Boeing relied on a single sensor that had
been previously flagged in over 200 incident reports submitted to
the FAA (U.S. Federal Aviation Administration),” Husain said in a
statement.
Two Boeing spokeswomen in Europe did not reply to messages
seeking comment, while a Boeing spokesman in the U.S. did not
respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
“Our family has lost its shining knight and the world has lost a
brilliant entrepreneur,” Dubois-Seex, a French citizen, said in a
statement.
Boeing said recently it had completed an update to the 737 MAX’s
MCAS software and was in the process of submitting a plan for
related pilot training to the FAA.
It is unclear when the 737 MAX aircraft will receive FAA
approval to return to service.
Safety regulators in other countries have said they plan to
independently assess Boeing’s fixes before giving their
approval.
(Reuters/NAN)
Subscribe ToNairalaw News!
Read more widow-sues-boeing-for-276m-over-ethiopian-crash/