New York (AFP)

Boeing signed the first agreements with families of the 189 victims of the Lion Air Flight 610 crash, an arrangement providing for the payment of at least $ 1.2 million per victim.

"We signed an agreement last month with Boeing for eleven of the seventeen families we represent," Alexandra Wisner, one of the lawyers in charge of these cases at Wisner Law Firm in Chicago, told AFP on Wednesday.

She said she was "optimistic" for the other six files and did not want to say if there were any blocking points with Boeing.

According to a close source, the agreement, which is confidential, provides that the US aircraft manufacturer pays at least $ 1.2 million per victim.

In other words, if there were three members of the same family - a couple and a child, for example - this amount will be multiplied by three.

"Boeing is fully cooperating with the investigating authorities (on these accidents) and we do not comment directly on the complaints," said a spokesman.

The Lion Air 737 MAX crashed on October 29, 2018 off the Java Sea in Indonesia.

- More than a hundred complaints remain -

This agreement comes at a time when the aeronautical manufacturer, whose internal culture is strongly criticized, seeks to reorganize itself to gain efficiency on security issues.

It will create a permanent committee on aerospace security on its board of directors, whose primary responsibility will be "oversight and ensure the security of design, development, assembly, production , implementation, maintenance and delivery of "Boeing's products and services.

The amicable agreement between Boeing and the 11 families of the victims is separate from the specific fund set up by Boeing to compensate the families of the victims of the accidents of the 737 MAX of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines of March 10 (157). dead).

As part of the fund, Boeing pledged $ 144,500 to each family of 346 victims and made it clear, through the voice of famed US lawyer Kenneth Feinberg: "The fund is separate and apart from all litigation. purely voluntary, no one is forced to participate in it ".

In addition to Wisner's clients, the Chicago group faces about 40 other complaints related to the Lion Air crash in the Chicago courts, home to its headquarters.

The number of legal actions recorded so far for Ethiopian Airlines is 97, with victims coming from more than thirty countries.

"The negotiations (for the families of the victims of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines) have not started yet but they should be in the coming weeks," said Alexandra Wisner Wednesday.

In both accidents, the MCAS anti-stall system, specially designed for the 737 MAX, was questioned by preliminary investigations.

The entire Boeing 737 MAX fleet was banned from the sky around the world in mid-March and there is still no date on its return in service more than six months later.

In addition to the aircraft manufacturer, criticism is also growing against the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), the US air regulator.

In particular, he is accused of being the last authority to nail the aircraft to the ground and to have Boeing approved the important systems of the 737 MAX, including the MCAS.

Thanks to a procedure called ODA adopted in 2005 under the pressure of the aeronautics lobby, against a backdrop of deregulation and a drop in the agency's budget, Boeing chose the engineers to inspect its aircraft, the FAA affixed its seal.

Boeing made a move on Wednesday to European and Canadian regulators, who have made pilot training a priority to lift the flight ban on the 737 MAX.

The aircraft manufacturer suggests "working with all aviation stakeholders to advise and recommend general pilot training, methods and curricula, beyond those recommended in a traditional training program", to all commercial aircraft that it manufactures.

One way also to respond to criticism of the faulty formation on the 737 MAX.

© 2019 AFP