Boeing must face shareholder class action following MAX 9 blowout

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday certified a class action accusing Boeing of prioritizing profit over safety and overstating its commitment to safe aircraft, prior to the January 2024 mid-air cabin panel blowout on an Alaskan Airlines 737 MAX 9.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, said shareholders led by Rhode Island's state treasurer who owned Boeing stock between January 7, 2021 and January, 8, 2024 may sue as a group for damages.

Shareholders wanted the class period to begin in 2019, but Brinkema said it should start when Boeing resolved a U.S. Department of Justice criminal case related to MAX safety.

Class actions can allow greater recoveries at lower cost than individual lawsuits. Boeing shareholders said the company's misleading statements inflated its stock price after two MAX planes crashed in October 2018 and March 2019, killing 346.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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