The lawyer who is currently representing relatives of all the 157 victims who were killed on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8, is seeking documents from the manufacturer Boeing and US regulators. The documents verify the decision to not ground the aircraft after the previous fatal accident. The Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed just shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa on March 10. This was the second accident in about five months which involved the same Boeing Max 8 model. The Lion Air 737 Max crashed in October 2018, killing 189 people. 

Read - Boeing To Take A $4.9 Billion Charge Over Grounded Jet

The anti-stall system

The MAX's MCAS anti-stall system was implicated in both the crashes that took hundreds of lives. The US Federal Aviation Administration did not order the grounding of the flight even after the Lion Air crash, instead reminded pilots of emergency procedures and issued an airworthiness directive. Further, the US Federal also asked Boeing to provide an amendment to the aircraft. However, the aviation company was still working on the safety procedures at the time of the Ethiopian Airlines crash. The next day of the Ethiopian airline crash, China, along with Indonesia and Ethiopia also ordered airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes citing flight safety.

Read - 'Parked' Planes: Grounded Boeing 737 Max Planes Parked In Employees' Parking Lot At Company's US Factory, Netizens Say 'it's Safer There'

Victim's lawyer requests to get documents

Robert Clifford whose Chicago-based law firm represents Ethiopian Airlines crash victims made a request at a hearing in front of the Chicago judge to get the documents. He said that the decisions to keep the MAX 8 planes in service are “the key”. The law firm and Boeing are currently working to develop a protective order regarding the production of documents that deal with design as well as the development of the 737 Max 8. Clifford also made it clear that there prime focus now in the case is to identify what Boeing knew following the first Lion Air crash on October 29 of Max 8 in the Java Sea and then after the Ethiopian crash on March 10, just five months later. Boeing had made a statement earlier that the company was cooperating with the procedures of the case and investigating officers. However, they did not make comment directly on the lawsuit against them. The next hearing has been scheduled for October 28, and another one on November 21.

Read - Boeing Says 'sorry' For Max Crashes, Seeking Renewed Trust

Read - Boeing Wanted To Wait 3 Years To Fix Safety Alert On 737 Max

(inputs from PTI)