Boeing sees me as its 'piggy bank', Lion Air co-founder says

The co-founder of Lion Air has lashed out at Boeing's handling of the accidents as the potential business fallout from the jet's grounding intensifies. Rusdi Kirana said a recent apology by Boeing over the 346 lives lost in the 2 disasters stood in contrast to what he viewed as hasty earlier criticism of Lion Air's pilots. Kirana also accused Boeing of treating him as a "piggy bank". Lion Air has spent tens of billions of dollars on plane orders with Boeing. Kirana is the figurehead for what is now one of the planemaker's largest customers with 187 jets on order and 200 already delivered. Lion Air threatened in December to axe those orders, but has given no further update. Kirana said the contrasting reactions demonstrated that Boeing was taking fast-growing carriers such as his for granted. <br/>