Grounded: A Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet on the tarmac of Soekarno Hatta International airport near Jakarta in this file picture. In June 2017, a Boeing employee referred to Lion Air officials as "idiots” for seeking more simulation training on the Max for its pilots, records show. Lion Air abandoned the idea after the planemaker convinced the airline it was unnecessary.
LOS ANGELES: Internal emails from Boeing Co. employees could strengthen the legal case for families claiming the company’s push to minimize the training needed for new 737 Max aircraft contributed to two crashes that killed 346 people.
Employees bragged about fooling the Federal Aviation Administration into thinking pilots who’d flown older 737 models would need only computer training to fly the new version, emails released by the company show. Those comments support lawsuits claiming Boeing compromised safety to sell jets -- and may increase its liability, said Justin Green, an attorney representing 32 families of people who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash last year.
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