Boeing crash victims' families urge DOJ to criminally prosecute company
The families of victims who died in one of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes met with Department of Justice officials Wednesday regarding the looming decision to prosecute or dismiss charges against the company.The fatal Boeing crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 killed 346 people.Family members of victims of the 2019 crash in Ethiopia met with prosecutors in Washington D.C.
Wednesday.The first crash on Oct.29, 2018, in Jakarta, Indonesia, killed all 189 passengers and crew.MORE: Amid Boeing safety probe, clock ticks on effort to disclose details of 2021 DOJ deal over 737 Max crashesThe second crash, on March 10, 2019, happened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when a Boeing aircraft crashed minutes after takeoff and killed 157 people onboard.In this July 20, 2022, file photo, a Boeing 737 Max aircraft is shown during a display at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, England.Peter Cziborra/Reuters, FILEBoth crashes preceded the Alaska Airlines incident earlier this year, when a door plug fell out of the fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max 9, a newer model, after departure.After a five-hour meeting on Wednesday, lawyers for the families of some of the victims said that they received no additional information about whether the Justice Department will be moving to dismiss charges against Boeing after the deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) it reached with the company.Lawyers for the families also said they were not given specific information about how prosecutors are investigating the Alaska Airlines blowout.In 2021, the DOJ charged Boeing with "conspiracy to defraud the United States," after a lengthy investigation that the company knowingly misled regulators while seeking approval for its 737 MAX aircraft.Boeing entered into the deferred prosecution agreement worth $2.5 billion consisting of a $243 million criminal penalty, $500 million to relatives who lost loved ones and $1.77 billion to global airlines affected by the MAX groundings.The government ha...