PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK — Failure to properly inform its own test pilots and selling the 737-8 MAX even though the company knew the angle of incidence safety feature was dangerously flawed are new allegations against Boeing

New lawsuits for death due to misconduct in the crash of the Boeing 737-8 MAX, operated as Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, were filed on May 16 in Chicago, Illinois, for the death of Virginia Chimenti, from Rome, Italy and Ghislaine De Claremont from Wallonia, Belgium. Ms. Chimenti and Ms. De Claremont were among the 157 people killed in the crash of the ET302 plane on March 10, 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by the New York law firm Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, with Power Rogers & Smith L.L.P., located in Chicago, Fabrizio Arossa of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in Rome (on behalf of Virginia Chimenti's family) and Jean-Michel Fobe of Sybarius Avocats, in Brussels, Belgium (on behalf of ghislaine De Claremont's family). The defendants in this case are Boeing Company located in Chicago and Rosemount Aerospace, Inc. in Minnesota.

Two lawsuits had already been filed on May 2 on behalf of the family of Carlo Spini and his wife Gabriella Viciani, from the Italian province of Arezzo, a doctor and nurse on his way to a humanitarian mission in Kenya.

Ms. Chimenti has dedicated her life to the fight against hunger in the world and, at the age of 26, she was a consultant for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). While continuing her studies at Bocconi University in Milan, she had started working for an NGO in Nairobi, Kenya, that protects vulnerable children living in the slums of Dandora. She earned her master's degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, then began working at the United Nations Capital Development Fund and the Agricultural Development Fund, where she focused her work on facilitating sustainable models to break cycles of poverty and hunger. She is survived by her parents and sister.

Ghislaine De Claremont was a personal banker at ING Bank in Wallonia, Belgium. She was a single mother and raised two daughters, one of whom became paraplegic after she, her sister and mother were caught in a shootout between police and violent criminals in 1995, touching Melissa Mairesse, the youngest daughter, in the spinal cord at the age of 10. Melissa was sentenced to live in a wheelchair and Ghislaine De Claremont took care of her daughter's special needs and defended her rights. For the 60th birthday of their devoted mother, Melissa and her older sister, Jessica Mairesse, had organized a safari in Africa. Ms. De Claremont was part of that trip when she was killed aboard flight ET302.

Justin Green, a partner at Kreindler & Kreindler LLP and a military-trained pilot, said: "Boeing has told the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the Boeing 737-8 MAX's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) cannot cause a catastrophic event even in the event of a failure, and the FAA allowed Boeing to check the safety of the system with virtually no oversight from it. But MCAS is a fatally flawed system that has already caused two air disasters. Boeing designed its MCAS to automatically push the aircraft's nose down based on information provided by a single angle of incidence sensor. Boeing has designed the MCAS in such a way that it does not take into account the accuracy or plausibility of the angle of incidence information, or even the altitude at which the aircraft is above the ground. Boeing designed the system to repeatedly push its nose down and counter the pilots' efforts to save the plane. The design of Boeing's MCAS allowed the failure of a single incidence angle sensor to cause two aviation disasters. This is the worst design in the history of modern commercial aviation. »

"We are seeking exemplary damages because Illinois' strong public policy makes it possible to hold Boeing liable for its gross and intentional negligence, including its refusal, even today, to admit any problems with the grounded Boeing 737-8 MAX, and this, even as the plane is grounded and Boeing is forced to finally correct the problem that has caused two air disasters since the aircraft's recent entry into service," commented Todd Smith, a partner at Power Rogers & Smith L.L.P.

The complaint filed today on behalf of the victims' families summarizes in part their claims as follows:

"Boeing failed to point out to its own test pilots some important details regarding the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), including the system's power to quickly lower the nose of the Boeing 737-8 MAX, and, as a result, the test pilots did not conduct an adequate review of the safety of the system. »

"Boeing sold the Boeing 737-8 MAX to airlines knowing that a safety feature, known as the angle of incidence distuning light, designed to immediately notify pilots if one of the aircraft's angle of incidence sensors failed, did not work on the plane. »

"Boeing has put its financial interests ahead of the safety of passengers and crew by deciding to expedite the design, manufacture and certification of the Boeing 737-8 MAX, and by falsely declaring to the public, to the FAA and Boeing's customers that the aircraft could fly safely, statements outrageously maintained by Boeing after the ete 302 crash. »

"Being a new feature, the FAA should have verified and approved the design and operation of the MCAS, but there was no scrutiny of the MCAS during the compliance process that preceded the certification of the Boeing 737-8 MAX, or even after the crash of [Lion Air Flight] 610. »

Anthony Tarricone, also a partner at Kreindler, said: "Part of the case will focus on the closely related relationship between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing, which allows Boeing engineers to act as FAA safety inspectors during the certification process. The fact that the 737-8 MAX achieved its safety certification without rigorous analysis or testing of MCAS and its failure modes demonstrates that the FAA has been captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate. Industry lobbying to put company profits ahead of passenger safety does not promote aircraft safety certification. »