RICHMOND, Virginia: A U.S. federal appeals court decertified a shareholder class action accusing Boeing of misleading investors about its commitment to aircraft safety before the January 2024 mid-air cabin panel blowout aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that shareholders led by Rhode Island's state treasurer failed to show how damages could be calculated on a classwide basis or how much Boeing's 40 alleged misrepresentations artificially inflated the company's stock price at any given time.

Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. said the shareholders' damages expert offered "a series of 'maybes,' 'perhapses' and 'what ifs.'"

He also said the trial judge did not properly apply a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decertified an antitrust class action brought by Comcast cable TV subscribers.

The Rhode Island treasurer and lawyers representing the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Boeing and its lawyers also did not immediately respond.

The lawsuit alleged that Boeing inflated its stock price by making false and misleading statements, including claims that "safety dominates Boeing" and that employees could raise concerns when problems arose, following two fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

The latest case stems from the Jan. 5, 2024, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 incident, when a cabin panel blew out shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. One flight attendant and seven passengers suffered minor injuries, and Boeing's shares fell 8% the following trading day.

The blowout prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation and conclude that Boeing was not complying with its 2021 agreement to pay more than $2.5 billion to settle a criminal charge related to the MAX crashes.

In June 2025, the National Transportation Safety Board said Boeing failed to install four bolts securing the cabin panel on Flight 1282 and lacked adequate training and oversight to prevent the blowout.

The appeals court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, who had certified the shareholder class in March 2025 for investors who owned Boeing stock between Jan. 7, 2021, and Jan. 8, 2024.

Boeing is also facing a separate shareholder class action related to the earlier 737 MAX crashes, which a federal judge in Chicago certified in March.