Reporting by The New York Times and others eventually revealed competitive pressure, flawed design and problematic oversight had all played a role in the troubling history of the plane, Boeing’s best selling jet ever, and one with hundreds of billions of dollars in advance orders from airlines around the world when it was grounded.
What was the fallout?
Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in a settlement with the Justice Department in 2021 to resolve a criminal charge that it had conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the company and evaluates its planes.
In 2022, Boeing paid $200 million more in a deal with U.S. securities regulators over accusations that the company had misled investors by suggesting that human error was to blame for the two deadly crashes, and omitting the company’s concerns about the plane.
By the time the planes were recertified 20 months after the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, Boeing estimated the crisis had cost the company $20.7 billion.
Which airlines use the 737 Max 9?
Part of Boeing’s single-aisle 737 Max series, the Max 9 can carry as many as 220 passengers, depending on its seating configuration. United Airlines has 79 Max 9s in service, the most of any airline, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. All told, there are 215 Max 9 aircraft in service around the world, Cirium said. United and Alaska Airlines have about a third of them.
Source: www.nytimes.com
