The plane continued to fly until the Ethiopian crash prompted a global grounding. Any evidence showing that Boeing executives were aware of the 737 MAX problems could expose Boeing to huge punitive damages, which are unusual in air transportation accidents because planes rarely fly with a known deadly defect. The company resolved a 737 MAX criminal probe in January with a $2.5 billion Department of Justice settlement and has mostly settled the Lion Air crash litigation. It still faces an investor lawsuit in Delaware against its board and around 140 lawsuits by families of the Ethiopian crash. In the DOJ settlement Boeing admitted that two of its 737 MAX technical pilots, who are still under criminal investigation, had deceived the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about MCAS.

Source: Ethiopian News March 11, 2021 21:00 UTC