By Eric M. Johnson
(Reuters) – Lawyers for families of a fatal Boeing Co 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia are seeking testimony from the planemaker’s chief executive Dave Calhoun and his predecessor Dennis Muilenburg, among other current and former employees, according to a court filing.
The Boeing 737 MAX crash on Ethiopian Airlines on March 10, 2019, occurred five months after a similar disaster on a Lion Air flight, together killing 346 people and sparking a hailstorm of investigations and lawsuits.
While Boeing has mostly settled civil litigation stemming from the Lion Air crash, it is still facing over a 100 lawsuits in Chicago federal court related to the second crash.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers, who are focusing their case on what Boeing knew about the causes of the first crash and why the plane continued to fly, want to schedule depositions of Calhoun and Muilenburg between May 3 and June 18, the filing shows.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, Boeing reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department over the 737 MAX crashes, including a $243.6 million fine.
Its board of directors is facing an investor lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court, where a complaint freshly unsealed earlier this month alleged that the Boeing board breached its fiduciary duties and acted with gross negligence by failing “to monitor the safety of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplanes.”
Calhoun was a veteran board member before taking up the chief executive job.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Tracy Rucinski)
