WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The families of those killed in a pair of 2018 and 2019 Boeing crashes met Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ will take until the end of May to decide whether Boeing violated its safety agreement with the government.
That determination could inform choices about potential prosecution.
Justice Department officials are meeting Wednesday with the families of victims from the 2018 and 2019 Boeing 737 Max crashes that killed almost 350 people, as relatives and their attorneys push for criminal charges against the company.
The meeting comes months after the Jan. 5 midflight blowout of a door panel on an Alaska Airlines plane that could breach a 2021 agreement that allowed Boeing to avoid prosecution for the 2018 and 2019 crashes.
For years, relatives have raised concerns about safety with Boeing planes after the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
“The Justice Department and Boeing squirm and wiggle every which way to try to avoid responsibility,” Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter Samya Stumo died in the 2019 crash, told NewsNation. What Milleron wants to see from both entities, she said, is “accountability and responsibility,” and for them to acknowledge that the issue is systemic.
Michael Stumo, Samya’s father, shared his mission for Wednesday’s meeting: “We are holding on to the slim chance that DOJ will correct its past behavior, that it was fighting in order to protect Boeing in this charade called the deferred prosecution agreement, which is deemed to be by many to be the worst deferred prosecution agreement in the history of corporate crime.”
Why is Boeing facing DOJ scrutiny?
Along with their attorneys, relatives are expected to argue that Boeing violated a 2021 deal with prosecutors that required it to overhaul its compliance program. Federal prosecutors agreed to ask a judge to dismiss a criminal charge against Boeing as long as it complied with the deal’s terms over three years, Reuters reported.
In January 2021, Boeing paid $2.5 billion to settle an investigation connected to those crashes, in return for avoiding criminal prosecution and meeting certain conditions, like strengthening safety standards. The company also agreed to compensate victims’ relatives, Reuters reported.
However, Wednesday’s meeting comes after a door plug blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet during an Alaska Airlines flight, which exposed continuing safety and quality issues two days before the 2021 agreement expired.
“There exists a disconnect, for lack of a better word, between the words that are being said by Boeing management and what is being seen and experienced by employees across the company,” said Javier de Luis, who lost his sister in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.
“They hear safety is our number one priority, but what they see is that’s only true as long as your production milestones are met, and at that point, it’s push it out the door as fast as you can.”
Boeing declined NewsNation’s request for comment.
DOJ probes 2021 settlement compliance
Earlier this month, relatives’ lawyers met with DOJ officials who said they’re investigating circumstances outlined in the 2021 deal that could put Boeing in breach of the 2021 agreement, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The agreement gives U.S. officials six months from the deal’s Jan. 7 expiration to decide whether to prosecute Boeing on a charge that the company conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration or pursue other alternatives to dismissing the case.
Officials plan to do so within that time frame while investigations into the Jan. 5 panel blowout continue, which could inform their decision, one of the people told Reuters. The people spoke on condition of anonymity.
What happened in the 2018 and 2019 crashes?
Lion Air Flight 610 was traveling from Indonesia when it crashed Oct. 29, 2019. The Boeing 737 Max 8 operating the route crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.
The next year in March, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, operated by a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed into a field six minutes after takeoff from Ethiopia to Kenya, killing all 157 people onboard.
Reuters and NewsNation correspondent Joe Khalil contributed to this story.