Judge Dismisses MAX Pilots’ Suit Against Boeing

A federal judge has ruled that Boeing doesn’t have to pay for the career disruption suffered by pilots who were freshly typed in the 737 MAX when it was grounded in March of 2019. According to Simple Flying Judge Steven C. Seeger, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, agreed some pilots lost income because of the grounding but the issues with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System were not closely enough linked to those losses to give the pilots a legal case for damages. He dismissed their suit against Boeing on Monday.

"Stretching causation to cover people who weren’t on the [crashed 737 MAX] planes would expand the boundaries of liability much too far,” Seeger wrote in the judgment quoted by Simple Flying. “It is foreseeable that a defective plane might not fly. And it is natural to think that a defective design might cause accidents. But when you think about a defective plane, and the problems that could ensue, lost income by people who don’t crash probably isn’t at the top of the list."