Southwest, Boeing Class Action Says Fliers Tricked About 737 Max Safety

UPDATE: The Boeing 737 MAX 8 investigation is now open! If you flew on Southwest or American Airlines between Oct. 1, 2017 and March 13, 2019, submit your information here.

A group of airline passengers claim that Boeing and Southwest Airlines conspired to mislead customers into believing that Boeing 737 Max jets were safer than they are.

The customers say that there is a “fatal design defect” in the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

Allegedly, the planes have sensors that trigger the automated flight control feature that brings the plane’s nose down if the angle of the sensors is too high.

The feature is reportedly called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. Though this is considered a feature, these sensors are allegedly prone to failure, causing the plane’s nose to drop unnecessarily.

This defect has reportedly been linked to two Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes — the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash that killed 157 people on March 10, 2019, and the Lion Air Flight 610 crash that killed 189 people in October 2018.

According to the Southwest Boeing antitrust class action lawsuit, Southwest Airlines is one of Boeing’s biggest domestic customers, and was a “launch carrier” for a new line of fuel-efficient Max 8 jets. Allegedly, being a “launch carrier” for the planes meant that the airline had a role in developing and customizing the planes.

Customers in the Southwest collusion class action lawsuits assert that in its role as a launch carrier for Boeing, Southwest received incentives to not conduct as extensive testing as it otherwise would, in attempt to speed the release of the aircrafts.

The plaintiffs say that “Southwest’s involvement with testing was extensive but wrought with incentives to cut corners and skirt rules.”

The 737 defect class action lawsuit goes on to argue that Southwest and Boeing falsely represented to customers that the aircrafts had undergone extensive safety testing. Allegedly, the companies produced a promotional video about the testing, but in reality, the companies had a secret agreement to limit testing and simulations.

After the defect of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System came to light, the companies reportedly told the public that certain actions could be taken in-flight to correct the defect if the sensors did malfunction and cause the nose of the plane to dip.

However, customers assert that this relatively quick fix was not sufficient to address the problems with the 737, Customers say, “the truth was that the MCAS required a massive redesign and the Max 8 needed to be grounded until that redesign was implemented and then extensively tested.”

To support their argument that Southwest had allegedly supported Boeing through missteps in Southwest’s own financial interest, the customers in the Southwest Boeing antitrust class action lawsuit cite other instances in which Southwest supported Boeing similarly. Allegedly, this included Southwest’s choice to only fly Boeing 737 jets.

The airline passengers are represented by Yavar Bathaee, David H. Hecht, Andrew J. Lorin, Michael M. Pomerantz, Barron M. Flood and Brian J. Dunne of Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP.

The Southwest Boeing 737 Defect Collusion Class Action Lawsuit is Earl, et al. v. The Boeing Company, et al., Case No. 4:19-cv-00507, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

UPDATE: On Feb. 14, 2020, a federal judge in Texas ruled that Southwest Airlines and Boeing will have to face a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) complaint filed by plaintiffs who claim that the two companies conspired with each other to show the public that their Boeing 737 Max airplanes were safer than they actually were.

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