A US jury in Seattle federal court ruled on May 22, 2026, that Boeing was not guilty of hiding safety problems with 737 MAX jets sold to LOT Polish Airlines, rejecting claims of fraud related to the aircraft’s design defects and crashes [1, 2].
LOT Polish Airlines had sued Boeing seeking between $153 million and $250 million in damages, citing revenue losses caused by the 20-month global grounding of the 737 MAX fleet after two deadly crashes involving Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines that killed 346 people in total [1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 7].
The lawsuit accused Boeing of fraudulent misrepresentation and omission concerning changes to the 737 MAX’s MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) flight control system, which Boeing admitted was flawed and contributed to both crashes in 2018 and 2019 [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. The fleet was grounded worldwide from March 2019 until November 2020, when the FAA approved Boeing’s upgraded MCAS safety fixes [3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
The trial lasted two weeks, with the jury deliberating for three hours before clearing Boeing of fraud liability on May 22 [1, 2]. A Boeing spokesperson said, "We are gratified by the jury’s verdict in our favor today," reflecting the company’s satisfaction with the outcome [1, 2, 7].
LOT Polish Airlines said the legal process may continue and did not rule out an appeal, stating, "As the legal process may not yet be concluded, LOT will not comment further on the details of the proceeding at this stage" [1, 2, 7].
This case was the first trial brought by an airline against Boeing over the 737 MAX crashes and safety issues to reach a verdict [4, 6, 7]. Boeing faces additional lawsuits filed by families of crash victims, most of which have been settled out of court [4, 6, 7]. In a separate May 2026 case, a US jury awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old victim of the Ethiopian Airlines crash [4, 6, 7].
