Boeing Makes $100M Pledge

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The move appears to be a step towards repairing the image of the world’s largest plane maker, which has been severely dented by the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane in March just five months after a similar crash on a Lion Air flight in Indonesia. The two crashes killed a total of 346 people.

Boeing is the target of a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation into the development of the 737 MAX, regulatory probes and more than 100 lawsuits by victims’ families.

The multiyear payout is independent of the lawsuits and would have no impact on litigation, a Boeing spokesman said.

The $100 million, which is less than the list price of a 737 MAX 8, is meant to help with education and living expenses and to spur economic development in affected communities, Boeing said. It did not specify which authorities or organizations would receive the money.

Many of the passengers on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight were aid workers or involved with health, food, or environmental programs.

“If the money is spent on furthering the work of the people on that airplane it would be money well spent,” said Justin Green, a New York-based attorney representing several of the Ethiopia crash victims.

But he said the fund would not affect his clients’ courtroom strategy: “What families really want to know is why this happened. Could this have been avoided?”

After the Lion Air crash on Oct. 29 Boeing started developing a software here fix on a stall-prevention system called MCAS believed to have played a role in that disaster, as well as in the Ethiopian crash.

The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide after the second crash and regulators must approve the fix and new pilot training before the jets can fly again.

But just last month, regulators identified a new problem that will delay commercial flight for the jets until October at the earliest.

Boeing is in settlement talks over the Lion Air litigation and has separately offered to negotiate with families of Ethiopian Airlines victims, but some families have said they are not ready to settle, exposing the plane maker to a lengthy court battle.

“The Boeing brand is worth far more than $100 million and the board and executive leadership understand that is what is at stake,” said William Klepper, a Columbia Business School professor.