Sheany, Jakarta – The family of an Indonesian man who was killed in the crash of Lion Air flight JT-610 sued Boeing this week, alleging that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet was "unreasonably dangerous" due to its inaccurate sensors and that the US manufacturer failed to give proper instructions to pilots.
40-year-old Sudibyo Wardoyo from Jakarta was among the 189 people killed on board when the plane dove into the Java Sea after shortly taking off from Jakarta on Oct. 29.
On Monday, Corboy & Demetrio law firm filed the wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Sudibyo's family in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.
"Not only did Boeing place sensors that provided inaccurate data, it also failed to provide the plane's pilots adequate instructions," said firm co-founder Thomas Demetrio in a statement. "It was like Boeing first blindfolded and then tied the hands of the pilots," he added.
The lawsuit is the most recent, among several that have been filed against Boeing by relatives of the crash victims, alleging that faults with the new 737 MAX model have led to the deaths.
In the statement, allegations include how "the two-month-old 737 MAX 8 aircraft was unreasonably dangerous because its sensors provided inaccurate data to its flight control system resulting in its anti-stall system to improperly engage."
A preliminary crash report from the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) suggested that pilots of the JT-610 flight struggled to control the plane's anti-stalling system before the crash.
The same report also said that since Oct. 26, several problems related to airspeed and altitude appeared on the sensors a number of times.
The plane's cockpit voice recorder is yet to be found, but KNKT said the search for the second so-called black box is ongoing. The first black box, which recorded flight data, was retrieved three days after the accident by a team of Indonesian Navy divers.