Relatives of the victims from two catastrophic Boeing 737 MAX crashes have urged the Justice Department to impose a fine of up to $24.78 billion and pursue criminal prosecution against the aerospace giant.
“Boeing’s crime ranks as the deadliest corporate offense in U.S. history,” asserted Paul Cassel, an attorney for 15 affected families, in a letter to the Justice Department. “A maximum fine exceeding $24 billion is both legally justified and entirely appropriate.”
The families proposed that $14 billion to $22 billion of the fine could be suspended, contingent upon Boeing allocating those funds towards an independent corporate monitor and making significant improvements in compliance and safety measures.
In May, the Justice Department concluded that Boeing had breached a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, which had previously shielded the company from facing a criminal conspiracy charge related to the 2018 and 2019 crashes, which claimed 346 lives.
Boeing recently denied violating this agreement. Federal prosecutors have until July 7 to decide whether to proceed with a criminal case, negotiate a plea deal, or extend the deferred prosecution agreement by another year.
The Justice Department’s findings were based on an incident where a new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet suffered a panel blow-off on January 5, just two days before the expiration of the 2021 agreement, highlighting persistent safety and quality issues at Boeing.
The families’ letter also called for Boeing’s board of directors to engage with them and urged the Justice Department to initiate criminal prosecutions against the corporate officials responsible at the time of the crashes.
Neither Boeing nor the Justice Department provided immediate comments.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and recently held a hearing with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, remarked, “There is near overwhelming evidence in my view as a former prosecutor that prosecution should be pursued.”
The two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes, which occurred in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, led to the global grounding of the aircraft for 20 months. Both tragedies were linked to a malfunctioning safety system known as MCAS.
