Steven Cohen  |  March 19, 2020

Category: Labor & Employment

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737 southwest plane

Eight flight attendants for Southwest Airlines filed a class action lawsuit against Boeing, claiming the aerospace company hid 737 MAX safety information.

The plaintiffs state that Boeing misrepresented that the 737 MAX was a safe aircraft, even after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all of these planes following two fatal crashes.

Boeing made a “calculated decision” to rush the airliner into the market, the plaintiffs allege, abandoning sound design and engineering practices and withholding critical information from regulators and the public.

The flight attendants say Boeing did not inform the public that the 737 MAX had a defect that could cause the plane to dive nose-down without the knowledge of the pilot. 

The defective feature on the aircraft is called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which reportedly are sensors that trigger an automated feature and brings the plane’s nose down if it is too high.

The 737 MAX airplanes are now grounded because they are unsafe and not airworthy, notes the Boeing class action lawsuit.

Because the planes were grounded, Southwest had to cancel thousands of flights which reportedly limited the plaintiffs income.

“Boeing is liable to SWAFA for the damages they have sustained, and continue to sustain, as the direct and proximate result of Boeing’s defective design of the 737 MAX and Boeing’s omissions and false representations concerning the 737 MAX to Stakeholders and the public,” according to the Boeing class action lawsuit.

The flight attendants allege that Boeing rushed their new 737 MAX to the marketplace because their main competitor, Airbus, introduced a new plane which had a new type of engine that saves money in fuel costs.

In the rush to get the aircraft to market and compete with the new Airbus plane, Boeing’s leadership placed exceptional pressure on its engineers to create a finished airplane quickly, notes the Southwest flight attendants.

The Boeing class action lawsuit also avers that “the unreasonable expectations placed on engineers and designers by Boeing’s corporate business leadership created an environment ripe for mistakes and one wherein employees were reluctant to raise concerns that could have delayed certification and production of the 737 MAX.”

Boeing buildingThe plaintiffs state in their class action lawsuit that Boeing knows flight attendants are paid per flight and they understand that the flight schedules are prepared far in advance, and are made based on the number of planes available.

Thus, Boeing is aware their commitment to providing a certain number of planes directly impacts the number of flight attendants that are employed by Southwest.

As of 2019, Southwest had added 34 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to its fleet and had 200 more on order, the plaintiffs allege. The airline hired and trained a significant number of flight attendants in anticipation of the new plane deliveries, the plaintiffs state.

But, after two crashes involving the 737 MAX, the FAA suspended all use of the planes and grounded them, according to the Boeing class action lawsuit.

“As of this date, the Boeing 737 MAX fleet remains grounded worldwide and the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) has identified numerous errors that Boeing made during the design and certification process for the 737 MAX,” the Southwest flight attendants allege.

Boeing knew or should have known that their 737 MAX planes were unsafe and not airworthy and placed pilots, flight attendants and the passengers in danger, the attendants claim.

However, Boeing marketed the plane as a variant of the safe and reliable aircraft, with new fuel efficient engines and design enhancements that posed minimal risk, the plaintiffs aver.  

This is not the first class action lawsuit to be filed against Boeing related to the design defects in their 737 MAX airplanes.  In July 2019, multiple airline passengers sued Boeing for misleading consumers into believing that the 737 MAX planes were safer than they actually were.

Prospective Class Members include: “All persons in the United States who were employed by Southwest Airlines Co. as a Flight Attendant on or after March 13, 2019 – the date that the FAA grounded the Boeing 737 MAX fleet of aircraft. The Class Period shall include the time from March 13, 2019 until such time as the 737 MAX is returned to service and the number of flights for members of the Class is restored to pre-March 13, 2019 levels.”

How do you feel about the misrepresentations made by Boeing about their airplanes? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Seth A. Katz and Michael Mauro of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine PC, Bradley R. Irwin, Roger D. Fraley Jr. and Ken Falkenstein of Irwin Fraley PLLC and Marvin A. Miller and Andy Szot of Miller Law LLC.

The Boeing Design Defect 737 MAX Class Action Lawsuit is Christensen, et al. v. The Boeing Company, Case No. 1:20-cv-01813, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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15 thoughts onSouthwest Attendants File 737 Max Safety Class Action

  1. Susan Miller says:

    I flew SWA 12 x between 2017- 2019. How do I find out what type of plane was used?
    Please add me to the class action suit.

  2. Tadd Engeda says:

    Me and my wife use south west airlines from la to Oakland back to la a lot please add our name to settlement.
    Thank you

  3. Nafeesah Hassan says:

    Please add myself a d my husband as ww were on a flight when the alarms were going off on the instrument panel and we had to wait almost an hour for the mechanic to repair.

  4. Rosa Montanez says:

    Please add me I flew with my husband and 2 children.

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