Southwest Airlines pilots have filed a lawsuit against Boeing claiming that the planemaker of “deliberately misleading” them over the 737 MAX, which has been grounded for several months after two fatal crashes.
Nearly 350 people died in crashes in Indonesia in October 2018 and in Ethiopia in March this year.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association says the grounding cost its pilots more than $100 million in lost wages, which it wants Boeing to pay.
“We have to be able to trust Boeing to truthfully disclose the information we need to safely operate our aircraft,” captain Jonathan Weaks, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), said.
“In the case of the 737 MAX, that absolutely did not happen.”
The lawsuit alleges the Southwest pilots agreed to fly the 737 MAX because Boeing said it was "airworthy and essentially the same as the time-tested 737 aircraft that its pilots have flown for years. These representations were false."
The 737 MAX grounding caused the elimination of more than 30,0000 scheduled Southwest flights since the grounding. according to the lawsuit.