A US jury has found aerospace giant Boeing not liable for lost revenue in a lawsuit involving its 737 Max jets, which were grounded for 20 months following two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Polish airline LOT had accused Boeing of fraud and sued for US$250 million in lost income after the company's alleged "purposeful and negligent false representations and omissions concerning the 737 Max aircraft," the initial complaint said.

The jury for the trial in a Seattle federal courthouse decided this was not the case, however, according to court documents.

"We are gratified by the jury's verdict in our favour," a Boeing spokesperson said.

The case stemmed from claims by LOT that Boeing had to compensate it for lost business due to the lengthy Max grounding in the aftermath of Lion Air's 2018 crash and Ethiopian Airlines' 2019 crash that claimed a joint total of 346 lives.

After the crashes, Boeing acknowledged that a flawed flight-stabilising program known as the MCAS (manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system) contributed to the disasters.

The 737 Max jets were grounded from March 2019 until November 2020, when the US Federal Aviation Administration cleared the aircraft to resume service after Boeing upgraded the MCAS.

Boeing has also faced dozens of claims from family members of Max crash victims, the vast majority of which have been settled out of court.

In a rare instance, a US jury awarded US$49.5 million in damages this month to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who died in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.

In November, another jury awarded the widower of one of the Max victims US$28.45 million. Another trial, in January, was halted when an out-of-court settlement was reached after the second day.

The next trial is scheduled for August 3 and focuses on the death of Michael Ryan of Ireland.

A US judge also dropped criminal charges against Boeing in November over the Max crashes as part of an agreement with US prosecutors. (AFP)


Edited by Azam Khan