Passengers in fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes are “crime victims,” according to a U.S. judge
People who died in two incidents involving Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) 737 MAX are now regarded legally as “crime victims,” according to a Texas-based U.S. judge’s decision on Friday. This classification will decide the appropriate remedies.
When the U.S. Justice Department and the planemaker came to an agreement in January 2021 to not prosecute over two crashes that killed 346 people, some of the victims’ families said in December that the Justice Department had violated their legal rights.
The families demanded that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor revoke Boeing’s immunity from prosecution, which was included in the $2.5 billion agreement, and order the planemaker to be publicly arraigned on felony charges. They claimed the government “lied and violated their rights through a secret process.”
According to O’Connor’s decision on Friday, 346 fewer people would have perished in the crashes if it weren’t for Boeing’s criminal conspiracy to cheat the Federal Aviation Administration.
The decision “is a significant success,” according to the families’ attorney, Paul Cassell, and “sets the ground for a key hearing, where we will submit proposed remedies that would allow criminal prosecution to completely hold Boeing accountable.”
Boeing did not respond right away.
Atty. General Merrick Garland met with some of the families after they filed a lawsuit alleging that the Crime Victims’ Rights Act had been broken, but he maintained the plea agreement, which included a $244 million fine, $1.77 billion in airline compensation, and a $500 million fund for crash victims.
Following the catastrophic disasters in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, a 21-month probe into the 737 MAX’s design and development came to an end with the settlement.
A safety mechanism known as MCAS, which was connected to two deadly crashes and created to assist in stopping the MAX from pitching up, was not fully disclosed by Boeing to the FAA. According to O’Connor, Ethiopian and Indonesian pilots would have “had training sufficient to respond to the MCAS activation that occurred on both aircraft” if Boeing had not committed its crime.
The crashes, which have cost Boeing more than $20 billion in compensation, production expenses, and fines and caused the best-selling airliner to be grounded for 20 months, forced Congress to approve laws changing FAA aviation certification.
Boeing is requesting that Congress extend the FAA’s certification deadline for the MAX 7 and MAX 10 beyond the legislation’s December deadline. After that date, all planes must have modern alert systems in the cockpit, which the 737 planes do not.
In order to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it misled investors about the MAX, Boeing paid $200 million last month.
