Boeing is playing with lives: Wife of Lion Air crash jet’s Indian pilot

Garima Sethi, the wife of Indian pilot on Lion Air flight that plunged into the sea on October 29 claiming 189 lives, has accused Boeing of “playing with lives” and said the second crash involving the same model could have been prevented if appeals to ground the 737 Max 8 fleet were given more weight by the airline and others.

Sethi, wife of 31-year-old Bhavye Suneja, told the Washington Post that she had pleaded with Lion Air and Indonesian authorities several times to ground the model which was later blamed for the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people on March 10. She said that Lion Air officials told her in January — two months before the Ethiopia crash — that they needed more information on the Boeing model to take such a step. The officials also told Sethi that Boeing had reassured them that the aircraft was safe.

Sethi, 31, said that a second crash of a Boeing Max jet in Ethiopia could have been prevented if the appeals by the victims’ families were given more weight by Lion Air and others. “We tried to do our part, but nobody heard us.” On Ethiopia crash, she said: “It was altogether the same story. I don’t have any words... They (Boeing) were playing with lives.” A spokesman for Lion Air and Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee declined to comment on Sethi’s views.