Boeing Paid $212 Million To End A 737 MAX Fight — Now Plane Owners May Get To Sue Again Anyway

The Boeing 737 MAX is the gift to lawyers that just does not end. Norwegian Air complained that Boeing sold it 737 MAX aircraft under false pretenses. Boeing provided compensation and Norwegian settled. As part of the deal, Norwegian ordered 50 more of the same plane and took 30 more options which they ultimately exercised. It seemed like that would have been the end of the dispute. But four affiliated companies of Norwegian say the settlement doesn’t cover them, and they get to sue Boeing separately. They’re the entities that hold ownership of 12 of the aircraft themselves. They’re asking a federal judge to force a former senior Boeing executive to testify, arguing that he has unique knowledge about what Boeing’s leadership knew while the aircraft was being developed, to support the claim that they were duped into buying the planes. Norwegian Air Shuttle and aircraft-owning subsidiary Arctic Aviation Assets originally sued Boeing in 2020. They paid more than $1 billion for 18 737 MAX aircraft, claiming that Boeing induced them to enter the deal by portraying the MAX as a safe, modest evolution of the 737. Airlines could add the aircraft without creating a new pilot group or sending pilots through expensive simulator training and just going through modest differences training. However, as we later learned: MCAS could command nose-down stabilizer movement based on information from a single angle-of-attack sensor. The system could activate repeatedly and exercise substantially more authority than airlines and pilots had been told. Boeing knew of internal concerns about the system while continuing to market the MAX as a straightforward extension of the existing 737 family. Information about MCAS was omitted from pilot manuals and training materials, preserving Boeing’s ability to promise airlines that costly simulator training would not be required. When settling all outstanding legal disputes with Boeing, Norwegian reported an accounting gain of NOK 2 billion (US$212 million). Norwegian’s CEO sayid the deal would “terminate the lawsuits.” The current plaintiffs are AAA MAX 1 Limited, AAA MAX 2 Limited, AAA MAX 3 Limited and AAA MAX 4 Limited which are special-purpose aircraft-owning companies in the Cayman Islands. They claim the settlement doesn’t cover them. The current trial is scheduled for February 16, 2027. Topics on this page