LOT Polish Airlines Alleges Boeing Hid 737 MAX Flaws

LOT Polish Airlines sued Boeing for fraud, alleging the planemaker hid 737 MAX safety defects to secure a 2016 lease deal. The airline seeks unspecified damages for revenue lost during the global grounding of the aircraft after the crashes. This trial in United States marks the first time a carrier has taken Boeing to court over the MAX crashes.

During opening statements on Monday afternoon, attorney Anthony Battista said Boeing misled the carrier about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), the software designed to prevent the nose from pitching up. Boeing engineers grappled with this tendency during development, yet the planemaker downplayed its complexity to regulators. This allowed Boeing to avoid mandatory simulator training, a key selling point against rival Airbus.