My understanding was that the caveat preventing those from accepting the government payout (averaging $1.6 million) was designed to prevent the airlines from being sued out of business.
That sounds possible but you would think major carriers as such would have insurance out the @ss.
I think it was fast and quick hush money.
With the Fed’s resources I would wager they had smoking guns within hours. Hours!
Heck, just the passenger manifests would have spelled ROP involvement.
Gotta keep those petro dollars flowin’.