[dia80]

UK rules differ from the US there is a 3-point test for insider trading:

1. The information has to be specific - Yes - you should sell Boeing

2. Would a reasonable investor take this information into account when making a decision to trade - Yes - this seems quite clear

3. The information must be non public - IIRC disclosure to a large group of people - in this case the perhaps 200ish people on the plane knowing it had a problem would probably count as the information being public and thus this test is not met and you are free to trade - I think the bar is around 30 people

I knew all those hours spent in compliance training would come in handy one day!

[helsinkiandrew]

There's an interesting real world case of the distinction between US and UK/Europe rules about what is public from a few years ago. Someone acted on information from an overheard phone call on a train and was found guilty by a French court.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-29/deals-... Archive https://archive.ph/Imf75

[Dracophoenix]

On the third point, what if the plane was privately-owned or chartered?

[user_7832]

That's when you start counting the radio call to the tower + whatever other pilots are there in the area to hit the golden 30.

[quickthrower2]

On the plane you can see the hole in the side. That is more of a signal to sell than a mayday alone. Maybe.

[yieldcrv]

The fourth point, which most comments seem to be missing: would a court and appeals court take that same stance?

here in the US, quoting statutes on this topic is not useful because we also don’t have a specific statute, we have a couple of general fraud statutes that the regulator has contorted itself to fit scenarios in

[aneryx]

So if this was a smaller plane with only 20 people on it, it could qualify as inside trading in the UK?