Crash Victims’ Relatives Blast Deal

Relatives of the 346 victims who died in two Boeing 737 Max crashes five months apart in 2018 and 2019 are roundly criticizing the plea deal being floated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve criminal charges against the aircraft manufacturer. 

The DOJ briefed the relatives on the proposed settlement on Sunday June 30 and it was immediately slammed as a “sweetheart deal” while urging a federal judge to reject it. It was anticipated that the DOJ would give Boeing until July 5, 2024 to respond to the offer. If Boeing accepts it, Texas U.S. District Judge Reed O’Conner would have to determine if accepting the deal serves the public interest or reject it.

The relatives are planning to attend the judge’s next hearing in the case and will ask him to reject the deal as being totally inadequate. Paul Cassell is a law professor at the University of Utah representing families of the victims in the case. "The Justice Department is preparing to offer to Boeing another sweetheart plea deal. The families will strenuously object to this plea deal.”

"I can tell you that the families are very unhappy and angered with DOJ’s decisions and proposal,” said Robert Clifford, a lawyer for families in pending civil cases in Chicago.

The proposed settlement includes a $487.2 million financial penalty but Boeing would only be required to pay half of that because of credit prosecutors are giving the company for a previous settlement in the crashes. The airplanes involved were an Indonesian Lion Air 737 Max that crashed in the Java Sea in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max that went down in a field shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa in March 2019.

Javier de Luis’s sister died in the Ethiopian accident and he served on the FAA’s expert review panel on the safety culture at Boeing. He said, “The issue is that the penalties being proposed by the DOJ are totally inadequate both from the perspective of accountability for the crimes committed, and from the perspective of acting in the public interest by ensuring a change in Boeing’s behavior.”

FMI: www.justice.gov