Did a conspiracy contribute to the deadly 737 Max crashes?

Among the factors that led to two tragic and fatal 737 Max crashes was a conspiracy involving Boeing and the FAA — that’s the allegation waged by families of the victims in the deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash.

In this case, “conspiracy” is more of a legal term. It’s not so much a plot point apt for an X-Files episode. Civil conspiracy claims are often made in lawsuits involving a company that is federally regulated. The recent Boeing lawsuit — filed by the family of the victims — claims that the 737 MAX was certified in a negligent way by the FAA.

“It may be that this civil conspiracy claim is being made in order to block, or undermine, Boeing’s defense that it relied on the FAA’s certification,” said former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna. “The federal government is going to be immunized anyway under federal sovereign immunity from claims, in all likelihood.”

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Since the burden won’t fall on the airline, or the federal government, it has fallen on Boeing.

“A civil conspiracy, though, is not easy to prove, it’s a very high bar,” he said.

Among the various factors to be considered is proving that injury was incurred.

“That, unfortunately, is proven by the fact that a lot of people died when those two planes went down,” McKenna said.

One Boeing employee provided insight into the FAA’s relationship with Boeing while speaking with the Candy, Mike, and Todd Show. James Baldwin spent 18 years working at Boeing; five years in a management role.

“We didn’t really see the FAA,” Baldwin said. “A senior leader would get an email saying the FAA is going to be in the factory. So basically everybody stops working and they go and clean the place and fix all the things, make sure all your chemicals are properly disposed of, all your drawings are contained, all your tools are accounted for. All the stuff they should be doing that they don’t do on a day-to-day basis, they do for the inspection. As soon as they leave, and they don’t get any fines, it goes back to the way it was before they came.”

“There’s always talk of random stop ins of the FAA, but in all my years I never once had an auditor come through,” he said. “Basically, you’re supposed to give them your name, your employee identification, and refer everything to your manager.”

Boeing lawsuit

Aerospace lawsuits can be tricky. There are a range of federal regulations that come into play, McKenna explains. There is a limit to the amount of damages an airline can be sued for. That way, an airline wouldn’t be financially crippled by multiple passenger lawsuits at the same time — similar to the ones Boeing faces. But those protections may not extend to a company like Boeing.

“An air carrier can declare a liability limit of $100,000 per passenger (for example),” McKenna said. “So let’s say there is an accident and the airline is found to be negligent. Regardless of the damages the passenger may have incurred, they may have died, the court would limit recovery to $100,000.”

“That doesn’t apply to manufacturers as far as I can see, just to airlines,” he said. “Which is one of the reasons that Boeing is being sued, not just the airlines.”

The lawsuit is the latest challenge Boeing has been hit with since two of its 737 MAX jets crashed within the past year. The consensus is that there is a flaw with Boeing’s MCAS system, which forces the plane’s nose downward when it senses the aircraft needs to decrease elevation. The model has been grounded until a fix is developed.

Boeing has also been sued for the Lion Air Crash in October 2018.

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