(Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday certified a class action accusing Boeing ( BA ) 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 ( BA ) 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 ( BA ) 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 ( BA ) shareholders said the company's misleading statements inflated its stock price after two MAX planes crashed in October 2018 and March 2019, killing 346.