U.S Attorneys To Ethiopian Airlines: Reject 737 MAX Compensation Offer of $500 million

US attorneys representing Ethiopian Airlines in their case against Boeing relating to the 737 MAX have advised the airline not to accept the settlement on offer.

Boeing is tabling a compensation amount of around $500 million to $600 million, which the legal team says is not enough. They are urging the airline to instead sue the planemaker for damages.

Part of the attorney’s argument hinges on the fact that Boeing recently accepted guilt for criminal fraud during the certification of the 737 MAX.

Ethiopian investigators have concluded in a new analysis that the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight was caused by design flaws in the Boeing 737 Max plane and not by the performance of the airline or its pilots

The legal team representing Ethiopian Airlines in its claim for compensation from Boeing relating to the 737 MAX crash and subsequent grounding have advised the airline not to accept the current offer on the table. In a letter sent to Ethiopian’s CEO Tewolde Gebremariam, DiCello Levitt Gutzler’s co-founding partner Adam Levitt said the amount on offer falls ‘grossly short’ of what should be demanded by the airline.

Claiming that Boeing’s offer is just a ‘mere fraction’ of the actual damages to the airline, both in physical losses and brand reputation, Levitt encouraged Gebremariam to “reject Boeing’s current, desperate settlement entreaties” and “immediately file and prosecute its claims against Boeing, in the United States.”