Aircraft Manufacturer's Liability and the Boeing 737 MAX 8 Conundrum

摘要

One of the questions that would arise in the B737 MAX 8 issue is whether an aircraft manufacturer must merely ensure that an aircraft is safe to fly and that there is no attendant responsibility for the manufacturer to make an aircraft "safe" to crash. This distinguishes between the manufacturer's liability for not making the aircraft perform safe navigation, and not making the aircraft "safe" to land, for instance, in water in an emergency. In other words, the manufacturer would be liable for avionics but not necessarily liable for fixing an apparatus that could be deployed in a landing on water. This principle was enunciated in the 1966 analogy of Evans v. General Motors Corp.76 where the court held that it was unreasonable to expect a manufacturer to make a motor vehicle accident proof or fool-proof when the danger to be avoided is obvious to all. What the court held was that the vehicle must be reasonably fit to carry out its major function of providing safe transport, but it cannot be expected that it would be equipped with a pontoon if it accidentally fell into the water.