March 29 (UPI) — The family of a Rwandan man killed in an Ethiopian Airlines flight earlier this month sued Boeing on Thursday over alleged defects in the company’s 737 Max family of airplanes.
The estate of Jackson Musoni filed the lawsuit in U.S. district court in Chicago. Musoni and 156 other people died March 10 when the Boeing 737 Max 8 they were riding in crashed near Addis Ababa.
The crash came less than six months after a Lion Air flight using the same model of aircraft crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people. An evaluation of the black box data in the Ethiopia crash revealed “clear similarities” between the two incidents, the country’s transport minister said.
This week, Boeing revealed a software fix for the aircraft to improve safety as well as new training for pilots.
Boeing said the fix updates the airliner’s automated Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, to allow the system to disengage if it receives conflicting data. A modified alert indicator for pilots is also among the fixes.
The company said it will give enhanced training for all 737 pilots so they’re more aware of how the automated system handles flight and how to disable it. The changes have been in development for weeks, but Boeing fully detailed them Wednesday.
Thursday’s complaint accused Boeing of designing a defective automated flight control system.
“The subject accident occurred because, among other things, Boeing defectively designed a new flight control system for the Boeing 737 Max 8 that automatically and erroneously pushes the aircraft’s nose down, and because Boeing failed to warn of the defect,” the lawsuit said.
