FORT WORTH, Texas (CN) — Families of the victims of two deadly 737 Max crashes vehemently denounced a proposal Sunday by the Department of Justice to offer Boeing a “sweetheart” plea deal in a criminal case in Texas federal court.
The Virginia-based aerospace manufacturer has until July 7 to decide whether it will accept over $240 million in fines, oversight by an external monitor and three years of probation in exchange for a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy. Final terms of the deal are unknown as they have yet to be filed with U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth. Neither Boeing nor federal prosecutors immediately responded to email messages requesting comment late Sunday.
Attorney Robert Clifford, of Chicago, represents relatives of over 20 victims of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which crashed in 2019. Clifford said Glenn Leon, the head of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section, told families during the meeting the criminal charges against Boeing could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Leon reportedly acknowledged “strong interest” by the families to nonetheless go to trial. The families repeatedly argued a jury should be allowed to make that decision.
“I can tell you that the families are very unhappy and angered with DOJ’s decisions and proposal,” Clifford said in a written statement. “There is no accountability, no admission that Boeing’s admitted crime caused the 346 deaths, and the families will most certainly object before Judge Reed O’Connor and ask that he reject the plea if Boeing accepts.”
Attorney Paul Cassell, of Salt Lake City, represents the families of 15 victims of Ethiopian Airlines 302 and Lion Air Flight 510, which crashed in 2018. He claims the proposal fails to “acknowledge in any way that Boeing’s crime killed” the victims.
“It also appears to rest on the idea that Boeing did not harm any victim,” Cassell said. “The families will strenuously object to this plea deal … The memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this.”
Cassell told prosecutors his clients would travel “from around the world to go to the next hearing” in Fort Worth to oppose the deal.
Attorney Erin Applebaum, with Kreindler & Kreindler in New York, condemned the plea deal as “shameful” and said Boeing is allowed to hand-pick who the external monitor will be. She represents the families of 34 victims.
“And when there is inevitably another Boeing crash and DOJ seeks to assign blame, they will have nowhere else to look but in the mirror,” she said.
The criminal case against Boeing was originally put on hold in 2021, when a deferred prosecution agreement was reached with the Trump administration in exchange for $2.5 billion in criminal penalties and compensation to the victims and airlines. Two of Boeing’s 737 Max pilots were accused of deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration in 2017 about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System software, which was designed to push the nose of the 737 Max down to prevent stalling. Boeing reportedly added the software due to the 737 Max’s larger, more fuel-efficient LEAP1-B engines requiring higher mounting points on the wing, which changed the center of gravity of the plane compared to earlier models of the 737.
The FAA grounded the 737 Max on March 13, 2019, and it was returned to service on Nov. 18, 2020.
Prosecutors abruptly rescinded the deferred prosecution agreement in May — four months after a door plug on a 737 Max 9 blew out mid-flight on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. They told O’Connor the company breached the agreement by “failing to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws through its operations.”
Federal prosecutors have so far only taken one criminal case regarding the 737 Max to trial, accusing former Boeing chief test pilot Mark Forkner of lying to the FAA and airlines about the MCAS software. A Fort Worth federal jury acquitted Forkner of four counts of wire fraud in 2022 after deliberating for one hour. He faced up to 80 years in federal prison.
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