Patterico's Pontifications

6/22/2019

Boeing Class Action Lawsuit

Filed under: Law — DRJ @ 9:26 pm



[Headline from DRJ]

Boeing hit with lawsuit for ‘unprecedented cover-up’:

Boeing was slapped with a class-action lawsuit from more than 400 pilots who say the company covered up design flaws in its 737 Max planes.
***
Pilots affected by the decision to ground the aircraft “suffer and continue to suffer significant lost wages, among other economic and non-economic damages,” according to the lawsuit.

The case is set to be heard by a court in Chicago on October 21, according to ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporation]. The lawsuit’s original plaintiff, identified only as “pilot X” due to the plaintiff’s fears of reprisal from Boeing officials and customers, filed the suit Friday reportedly seeking millions in damages.

— DRJ

18 Responses to “Boeing Class Action Lawsuit”

  1. The basis of their claim for economic damages is the safety measures Boeing took later,

    The whole problem was caused by Boeing not trusting inexperienced pilots in less developed countries.

    Their fix didn’t work out right.

    Boeing also did not call attention to the problem, and eventully sold two things separately that were supposed to be bundled together.

    In a word, Boeing got a little bit senile.

    Self driving cars may get the same problem that the Boeing 737 Max had..

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  2. This is uncharacteristic of Boeing.

    Sloppy management.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  3. Some of the earlier reports I read made it seem the mistakes/omissions were based on saving a few $$.

    This story makes no sense to me…..how they could be so stupid/risk ignorant.

    harkin (647002)

  4. I can’t tell if this is another Ford Pinto case, or if Boeing actually thought pilots could handle this problem, or something else. But the truth will come out and the drip, drip, drip of that process will keep hurting Boeing for years to come.

    DRJ (15874d)

  5. I’d like to hear Beldar’s opinion about this, before expressing mine (which includes the phrase “some sleazebag lawyers rushing to be the first to put their hands in Boeing’s pockets”).

    nk (dbc370)

  6. @3. Yep. That’s corporate; a management issue. This is not like them at all; risking industry reputation, etc. Competition from Airbus, etc. is fierce for orders/sales of those mid-range aircraft.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  7. 4. DRJ (15874d) — 6/23/2019 @ 8:47 am

    if Boeing actually thought pilots could handle this problem, or something else.

    Boeing thought inexoerienced pilots could not handle the plane correctly, but the computer could. But inexperienced pilots couldn’t handle the plane when the computer/autopilot was obviously wrong, and they ut corners to make it more easy for it to go wrongm and Boeing, or it’s sales people, ignored that proiblem.

    The plane can be flown safely, because every plane has some idiosyncrasies, which can be compensated for by sufficiently trained pilots, and that’s what airlines rely on. They never get the airplane 100% right.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  8. @ nk (#5): In no particular order, my comments are:

    It will be difficult if not impossible for the case to proceed to class certification due to a lack of commonality: Although the causal acts on Boeing’s part are common to all purported class members, their individual situations, and their purported damages, will vary wildly from one another. The named plaintiff may have been subjected to “fears of reprisal,” for example, based on his particular job, and the composition of his employer’s fleet and its attitude toward the problem. A pilot from the airline next door may have had a vastly different experience, better or worse. Their purported economic damages from lost wages (which I doubt are recoverable from the pilots’ employers’ grounding aircraft, even if it was foreseeable due to Boeing’s alleged conspiracy) will likewise vary dramatically. Getting the class certified will therefore likely be a substantial hurdle for the named plaintiff and his lawyers, and without class action status, the litigation risk for Boeing shrinks to a fraction of what it otherwise might be.

    I’ve helped defend, and worked extensively with other lawyers who’ve defended, similar “cover-up/conspiracy” cases; the firm where I learned my trade, for example, represented Ford throughout Texas on the exploding Pinto cases, and likewise Firestone on its Firestone 500 cases, and also some benzene exposure and other toxic tort cases. I’ve also done a little air crash litigation, but that’s a specialty niche one has to really devote a career to, and the best of them are themselves pilots.

    Precisely because such cases can result in massive liability and public relations disasters — even without being brought as class actions — Fortune 1000 companies tend to fight them tooth and nail, settling if at all only confidentially (with vastly more sophisticated and enforceable NDAs than mutt Michael Cohen ever dreamed of), and on the brink of trial. Defense costs become absolutely irrelevant to them, and there likewise is no limit to the amount of money they’ll spend commissioning opinion testimony from sympathetic and well-credentialed experts. They fear that one a plaintiff’s success being upheld on appeal, which could result in the defendant being collaterally estopped (issue preclusion) from denying the conspiracy and cover-up in future trials; once the dam bursts, there’s no putting the flood back behind it.

    Boeing will doubtless contend — and it may be true, or true at least in part — that the alleged “cover-up” was actually intended to prevent premature leaks that could have panicked the flying public worldwide, which of course is eventually what happened. Genuine smoking gun memoranda — and I’ve seen some — are rare. Usually such cases are built inferentially, and circumstantial evidence, while admissible and sometimes, especially cumulatively, powerful, is still circumstantial. Hence the rush by the named plaintiffs’ lawyers to grab national headlines and influence potential jury pools early and often.

    The families and heirs of those killed in the crashes have a vastly better prospect of hitting a home run through litigation than any of these pilots, who are well-trained and well-paid professionals without a scratch on any of them. They are not a naturally sympathetic class, even though people generally admire airline pilots (and rightly so). There will be no shortage of fellow pilots for Boeing to call as witnesses who will take the stand to say, in effect, “These whiners are giving us all a bad name, what’s important is that the problem has been identified and is being fixed.”

    Conclusion: I would not have offered to represent Pilot X on a contingent-fee basis, but I’m not at all surprised that there’s no shortage of lawyers who would, and who indeed would have searched until they could find a Pilot X.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  9. Thank you, Beldar.

    nk (dbc370)

  10. You’re of course welcome, my friend.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  11. Unless he’s retired in anticipation of becoming rich from this litigation, I’d be entirely unsurprised to learn (probably at Pilot X’s oral deposition) that yes, despite all the dirt he’s just dished on Boeing, he still flies their aircraft with planeloads of passengers — perhaps even the 737 Max aircraft! — several times weekly.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  12. At at least at the moment, Pilot X is not flying a 737 Max because no one is flying them, at least not yet in the US.
    And checking on the plane’s status, I found this statement from the FAA which may have flown under the radar, so to speak.

    https://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=93206

    6/2/2019 Update

    FAA Statement

    Boeing has informed the FAA that certain 737NG and 737MAX leading edge slat tracks may have been improperly manufactured and may not meet all applicable regulatory requirements for strength and durability.

    Following an investigation conducted by Boeing and the FAA Certificate Management Office (CMO), we have determined that up to 148 parts manufactured by a Boeing sub-tier supplier are affected. Boeing has identified groups of both 737NG and 737MAX airplane serial numbers on which these suspect parts may have been installed. 32 NG and 33 MAX are affected in the U.S. Affected worldwide fleet are 133 NG and 179 MAX aircraft.

    The affected parts may be susceptible to premature failure or cracks resulting from the improper manufacturing process. Although a complete failure of a leading edge slat track would not result in the loss of the aircraft, a risk remains that a failed part could lead to aircraft damage in flight.

    The FAA will issue an Airworthiness Directive to mandate Boeing’s service actions to identify and remove the discrepant parts from service. Operators of affected aircraft are required to perform this action within 10 days. The FAA today also alerted international civil aviation authorities of this condition and required actions.

    kishnevi (496414)

  13. I am surprised no one has yet put together a law suit “on behalf of” the millions of passengers whose lives were seemingly put at risk by Boeing’s conduct.

    kishnevi (496414)

  14. Pilot X isn’t flying the 737 Max today, no, but those aircraft will be modified and put back into service in due course. If he’s flying, he’s more likely — given the investments of time needed to get certification for a particular type of aircraft — to be flying other 737s than, say, an Airbus.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  15. Today’s Seattle Times, Boeing’s hometown paper, has a long feature titled The inside story of MCAS: How Boeing’s 737 MAX system gained power and lost safeguards.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  16. 15. Seattle is no longer the hometown of Boeing.

    The headaquarters moved to Chicago in 2001, in order, they said, not to be associated with any one division, for they now owned also McDonnell Douglas for one thing. But then, in 2006, Boeing decided that Chicago would not longer be their “World Headquarters” but merely their “corporate offices” without, however, anybody moving heir place of work or anything else changing. Calling it their “World Headquarters” they said, would imply that one division was superior to the other.

    The Boeing 737 moving assembly line is in Renton, Washington State.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  17. I’ve known a few highly trained pilots in my life. One of them was a man named Bill Smith.

    He was a USAF pilot who flew rescue missions behind enemy lines in Viet Nam during the war. Then he became a test pilot for the next generation of fighter jets. On one of these test flights, some technical malfunction forced him to bail out over the Rocky Mountains before the plane crashed. He survived for several days in the snow, with nothing but his uniform, as he made his way down the mountain. Finally, he encountered some tourist riding on a snowmobile and tried to wave him over. The guy wouldn’t stop, so Bill actually had to tackle him, to get a ride to the resort hotel some miles away.

    The Air Force was so impressed with his survival skills, he was given the position of his choice. He was offered ranking officer for survival training at Top Gun, but he turned down that position, preferring instead to be ranking officer for UFO surveillance at Roswell.

    The Discovery Channel produced a 30-minute documentary on his life, which I watched when it debuted some years ago. It was interesting, but nothing like meeting him in real life.

    Here’s the thing. Bill Smith had become a self-made millionaire by the age of 50, through sound investments in real estate, mostly in Minnesota but also in Canada, where he maintained hunting resorts. Hey, he was a survivalist, and for $2,000 he’d guide you on a big game hunt in the wilderness. His son, Brad, also a pilot but for a commercial airline, is also a survivalist. This guy went total Thoreau–he went out into the woods to live deliberately. No, seriously, he staked out a claim on an acre of the land they owned in Canada and built a log cabin by himself with his own two hands. Who does that?

    Anyway, once Bill Smith had money, he did what a lot millionaires in Minnesota do, he invested in the Rio Grande Valley. You would be surprised at who I know, but this is what these people do–they buy a home or condo, or a trailer park unit, here and declare it their primary residence for tax purposes. Texas doesn’t have a state income tax, so to avoid paying state income taxes in their home state, they buy property here. This is true for a lot rich people from high-tax northern states, and I have seen license plates from every state, including Alaska and Hawaii.

    So, that’s what Bill Smith did. He bought a unit in this complex; he also bought tracts of undeveloped land. My mother was his broker. To establish residency in Texas requires a month of occupancy, or two weeks twice a year. So every six months, Bill and Brad would fly down here, and take my parents and family to dinner, always at Red Lobster.

    Except for the few years I was away at university, I had dinner with Bill Smith at least twice a year for thirty years. He was quite the character. The stories he could tell, especially about UFOs. I, being a firm disbeliever in flying saucers and space aliens, having had learned that the operative word in “science fiction” is “fiction,” we had some great debates. I loved those. I mean, this is the guy who would know about UFO surveillance. He was in charge of it for over a decade! He would say, “I saw this.” And I would say, “Well, it probably was a meteor glancing off the atmosphere, or maybe it was ball lightning, or some atmospheric disturbance.” To me, and I ws just a junior high science teacher, much later a literature teacher, there is always a natural explanation for everything on Earth. There are no flying saucers, there are no space aliens, an extra-terrestrial has never been on this planet. I so enjoyed these dinners with Bill Smith, because we would always have these extended debates over lobster, and I would always end with asking him to resolve the Fermi paradox. Which is, “Where are they?” Meaning the extra-terrestrials, the space aliens, the flying saucers, because no concrete evidence has ever been found that they ever existed in the first place.

    I bring this up not because there has been an increase in UFO sightings lately, but because Gill Smith was a test pilot. This man knew how to fly a plane. And he knew what to do, if something went wrong with the plane.

    From what I’ve read, this was a colossal mistake by Boeing. Management wanted to extend flights with larger engines and more fuel, but tried to force these changes onto older aircraft structures. The larger engines placed at the front of the wings, and the larger fuel capacity tn the rear, changed the center of gravity of the plane. Test pilots expressed their concerns years ago, but Boeing went on with production, thinking a hardware problem could be corrected with a software fix. Planes crashed and hundreds died.

    I knew Bill Smith, had dinner and debate with him for decades. And I can tell you this for a fact, if he had been a test pilot for Boeing, there is absolutely no way he would have approved the 737 Max. The plane is structurally unstable, and there is no computer software that can repair that.

    Boeing management screwed up big time. They didn’t listen to their test pilots. Over-reliance on technology was their downfall. Now the entire fleet is grounded worldwide, and they’re losing billions in contracts. Airbus is in position to take up the vacuum, as are several other airliners.

    Pilots, especially test pilots, do not fly planes to crash. Commercial pilots have passengers towr worry about. And when the software added by the manufacturer takes away their ability to control an unstable plane, only disaster can result.

    That is what happened. And so now these “pilots” are suing over lost wages because their planes have been grounded? Those planes were a death fall waiting to happen. They should count their blessings. It’s the travelers that should be suing. They were the ones placed at eminent threatt of death, through gross mismanagement and actionable failure to comply with safety regulations.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  18. @17. Yep. The base design of the 737 series has been incredibly successful- and profitable- for Boeing for half a century but it appears current management, given the rising market pressure of competition from Airbus with similar mid-range aircraft in recent years, kept trying to adapt new engine designs to the modified ‘base’ airframe of the ol’work horse which in turn changes performance and requires updating to the flight systems software. Pardon the cross design analogy, but you do reach a point where a “DC-3” just can’t be turned into a jet plane.

    Prediction: Muilenburg is toast over this one and will take the fall eventually. Haley just joined the BoD and likely doesn’t want to crash and burn with any of this either. Pence’s act and usefulness has about flamed out; so won’t be surprised if Trump plucks Nikki– from the BoD, that is– and offers her a way to parachute out an land on the VEEP spot. Helps w/woman voters and pencils in the next chapter, post-Trump, assuming she grabs the brass ring, takes the gig and ran in 2024.

    Per UFO’s… silly stuff. Disinformation for black ops project testing or simply misidentified stuff; sundogs. Only thing one might not dismiss– and this is purely for your imagination to percolate over– is ‘time probes’ — from the future. Just sayin’… ‘back to the future’ stuff– something to ‘consider.’

    DCSCA (797bc0)


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