Last week, a US judge ruled that families of the victims of the two crashes that grounded the Boeing 737 MAX would not be able to reopen prosecution against the US manufacturer. The legal challenge had come about due to the victims having legally been ruled as 'crime victims' in the crashes. LOT Polish Airlines and Smartwings launched similar lawsuits against Boeing, but these also failed.

Lost lawsuits

According to Reuters, LOT and Smartwings requested to be declared crime victims in compensation cases regarding the 737 MAX due to their earnings losses during the type's grounding. Had they been categorized in this manner, this could have opened the door for compensation to offset some of these losses.

As ch-aviation notes, the carriers also made the point in their separate lawsuits against the US manufacturer that other airlines had received compensation from Boeing as part of a previous plea deal. However, their attempts to be declared victims and thus be eligible for compensation were turned down by US District Court Judge Reed O'Connor, who also rejected victims' families' prosecution bids.

Photo: Rudzenka/Shutterstock

He did so, as Simple Flying reported last week, due to his court having insufficient authority to reopen prosecution, despite feeling sympathy for the victims' families. Simple Flying contacted LOT for comment on the matter, but the Polish flag carrier declined to issue a statement for the time being, as did Smartwings.

Smartwings wasted no time in relaunching the MAX

The Boeing 737 MAX was grounded worldwide from March 2019 to late 2020, with different aviation safety regulators around the world recertifying the type in the final months of that year. However, more than two years later, the legal fallout surrounding the impacts of the two fatal accidents that grounded the type is continuing. Regarding these processes, a Boeing spokesperson told Simple Flying:

"We are committed to continuing to comply scrupulously with all of our obligations under the agreement we entered into with the Justice Department two years ago."

Once the MAX was able to operate revenue-earning services again, Smartwings was quick to reactivate the type. Indeed, the Czech low-cost leisure airline was just the second European carrier to do so, with its first post-recertification MAX flight being from Prague to Malaga on February 25th, 2021. Data from ch-aviation shows that it now has seven active Boeing 737 MAX 8s in its fleet.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

LOT and the 737 MAX

Smartwings also made history in January 2022 by becoming the first carrier to fly the Boeing 737 MAX to Antarctica. While LOT Polish Airlines hasn't taken its MAX aircraft quite so far, they are still a key part of its fleet today.

Indeed, ch-aviation's data shows that the Polish flag carrier presently has nine MAX 8 twinjets in its fleet (of which seven are active), with an average age of just 3.2 years old. Going forward, the airline also has nine more on order.

Sources: ch-aviation.com, Reuters