Lion Air

WASHINGTON — Three years to the day after Samya Stumo’s untimely death in an overseas plane crash, her advocates in Congress have moved to rename a federal fellowship program after her. Stumo, a 2010 graduate of Mount Everett Regional School in Sheffield, died as a result of the...

"I'll never fly on any Boeing aircraft again as long as I live," one Twitter user wrote.

Much like Love, Actually, Netflix’s new documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing starts off at the airport. So many reunions, vacations, and business trips are about to begin or conclude. And what everyone involved has in common is the shared faith that they will arrive at, and be delivered from, their destination in one piece.

In October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed shortly after taking off in Jakarta, killing all 189 passengers and crew aboard. Questions immediately emerged about the international pilots, their training background, and their overall qualifications, but few blamed the plane itself, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 that had been in service for just two months. The media and industry insiders insisted that Boeing, an American company synonymous with aviation excellence, couldn’t possibly be at fault for the disaster. Five months later, that presumption proved deadly when a second plane — Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — fell out of the sky outside Addis Ababa just six minutes after takeoff. There were no survivors.

Pilots used to say, “If it’s not Boeing I’m not going.” For decades no other aviation company was held in such high esteem for its meticulous perfectionism matched with visionary innovation. But as Rory Kennedy lucidly outlines in her engrossing and disturbing investigative documentary “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” their reputation took a near fatal hit on Oct. 29, 2018, when the Indonesian carrier Lion Air’s Flight 610 — flying one of Boeing’s hot new model 737 MAX airplanes — crashed shortly after take-off into the Java Sea. None of the 189 on board survived.

A new whitepaper about air travel in Southeast Asia contends that the region’s Covid-hit hubs should look to boost regional connectivity. The whitepaper observes that Southeast Asia’s connections with long-haul routes have been restored faster than regional routes. This, however, should start to change in 2022. Sponsored by...

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin asked for bank records after an evidentiary hearing over $2M in missing Lion Air client settlements. A lawyer for Edelson said the firm was in mediations with its insurer and a new lawyer for the Lion Air clients. Durkin issued a contempt order and referred...

On Oct. 29, 2018, Indonesian carrier Lion Air’s Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff. Nineteen weeks later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, headed to Kenya, also crashed, leaving a deep gouge in a field near the Addis Abba Bole Airport. All told, 346 passengers and crew were killed. Both planes were new Boeing 737-Maxes. “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” — which premiered at the virtual Sundance Film Festival — is the riveting, often rending tale of those crashes and the jet that links them. With the eloquent testimony of family members; aviation industry experts; former Boeing engineers and...