Boeing Gives $100m To Help 737 Max Crash Families


Boeing is giving $100m (£80m) to help families affected by the two crashes of the company's 737 Max planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The payment, stretching over several years, is independent of lawsuits filed in the wake of the disasters, which together killed 346 people.

The money will support education and living expenses for families and community programmes, Boeing said.

Boeing's 737 Max has been grounded worldwide since March.

The loss of Ethiopian Airlines' flight ET302 in March was the second fatal accident involving a 737 Max in the space of five months. A near identical aircraft, owned by the Indonesian carrier Lion Air, went down in the sea off Jakarta in October 2018.

Crash investigators have focussed on the aircraft's control system and Boeing has been working with regulators to roll out a software upgrade. But there is still no date when the manufacturer's top-selling aircraft might be cleared to fly again.

Boeing said in a statement on Wednesday that the "funds will support education, hardship and living expenses for impacted families, community programs, and economic development in impacted communities. Boeing will partner with local governments and non-profit organizations to address these needs. This initial investment will be made over multiple years."

Dennis Muilenburg, the chairman and chief executive, added: "We at Boeing are sorry for the tragic loss of lives in both of these accidents and these lives lost will continue to weigh heavily on our hearts and on our minds for years to come.

"The families and loved ones of those on board have our deepest sympathies, and we hope this initial outreach can help bring them comfort," he said.

Nomi Husain, a Texas-based lawyer representing some of the families of victims of ET 302, said Boeing's payment "doesn't come anywhere close to compensating the families for what has been taken from them".

He told the BBC's transport correspondent Tom Burridge that "some of our clients are not interested in financial compensation at this point" and that Boeing "put profit over safety to get their number-one selling plane to market" - a claim the planemaker strongly denies.

Mr Husain has so far filed seven cases on behalf of families, with some of those lawsuits seeking damages of $276m. He estimated that about 50 lawsuits had so far been filed by victims' families.

Some families are waiting for further information about the technical causes of the crashes and how regulators cleared the 737 Max to fly before deciding on legal action, he said. But many others just want the truth, he added.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Army Holds Private Burial For 100 Soldiers Killed By Boko Haram

Image
The Nigerian Army has organised a private burial for over 100 officers and soldiers killed during terrorist attacks on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion last month, The PUNCH has learnt. Our correspondent was told by one of the widows of the officers that the burial would take place in Maiduguri on Friday. It was, however, learnt that the army wanted the event to be private so that the real number of slain soldiers will not be known. One of the widows who did not wish to be identified said, “I was invited for the burial of my husband with a few others this Friday in Maiduguri. “Sincerely, we don’t even know how many will be buried and the army is not giving us any information.” A colonel, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said the army decided to make the burial private in order to hide the true casualty figure. He said, “Gen Buratai said only 23 soldiers were killed in the attack. He also put the number of troops wounded in action at 31. How...
Read more

Rep Members Who Will Not Return To The House In 2019 (see List)

Image
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, at least 50 per cent of the 360 House of Representatives members of the eighth assembly will not return to the ninth assembly next year. A review by News men show that many of these lawmakers either lost the primary elections that were recently concluded or have moved to seek different elective positions. Below are some of the House members who are certainly not returning in 2019 for various reasons. ABIA In Abia, the member representing Bende federal constituency, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, is not returning to the house as she did not clinch the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election. Unlike many of her colleagues, she did not seek to contest on a different platform. ADAMAWA Three out of the eight House of Representatives members from the state are not coming back. Out of the three, two lost the APC primary while the third contested for the Senate but failed to clinch the ticket. The two lawmakers who lost...
Read more