Families of several victims of the crash of Lion Air flight JT-610 say they are now open to an out-of-court settlement with Boeing after the US airline manufacturer accepted responsibility for the crash last week.
“If Boeing voluntarily want peace or a settlement based on the sum that we offered, hopefully that will be appropriate and will be accepted by the families. Maybe this case will be resolved sooner rather than later without having to go to court. But we can’t guarantee that,” Michael Indrajana, of the California-based Indrajana Law Group, said in a press conference in Jakarta yesterday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
Indrajana spoke on behalf of relatives of 11 victims and their attorneys.
Their lawsuit was filed in Illinois, where Boeing is based. Indrajana says his clients have not yet decided on the sum of the lawsuit as investigation into the crash is still ongoing.
“We see that Boeing’s apology and their accepting of responsibility as a good step forward, because it seems Boeing is being proactive in finding a resolution to this matter,” he said.
On Friday, the world’s largest airplane manufacturer officially apologized and accepted responsibility for two fatal crashes involving their 737 MAX 8 model, namely Lion Air flight JT-610 in October 2018 and Ethiopia Airlines flight 302 earlier this month, acknowledging how the malfunctioning of their planes’ Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation Systems (MCAS) contributed to both crashes.
More than 30 relatives of those who died in the Lion Air crash have sued Boeing in US courts. It is not yet clear how Boeing’s new position will impact their cases.
Boeing has yet to respond to Indrajana’s statement.
Reader Interactions