Latest news with #FlightET302
New York Post
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Families of victims in crashes plan objection to Boeing's deal with DOJ
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly informed victims' families of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX8 aircraft crashes that it is dismissing criminal fraud charges against the airplane manufacturer, though families plan to object to the filing. Clifford Law Offices said in a news release that the DOJ sent a letter to families on Thursday, informing them the government agency had filed a motion to dismiss the criminal fraud matter against Boeing. Instead, the DOJ said it filed a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) against Boeing regarding two 737 MAX 8 planes that crashed six years ago and killed 346 people. The DOJ sent the letter as part of the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act, which requires it to inform crime victims of their actions. Pro bono lawyer Paul Cassell, who also works as a professor at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, represents several families of victims, and they have advised U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor about their intentions to object to the DOJ's motion. 4 The Department of Justice has reportedly informed victims' families of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashes that it is dismissing criminal fraud charges against the airplane manufacturer. AP The families were informed nearly a week after the DOJ said it had struck a tentative deal with Boeing that allows the company to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading regulators about the company's 737 Max plane before two crashes that killed 346 people. Under the deal, Boeing will pay out $1.1 billion, including $445 million to a fund for the crash victims' families, the DOJ said in court documents last week. In exchange, the DOJ will dismiss a fraud charge against the aircraft manufacturer. 4 The DOJ said it filed a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) against Boeing regarding two 737 MAX 8 planes that crashed six years ago and killed 346 people. REUTERS The DOJ did not immediately respond to FOX Business's request for comment on the matter. The news release noted that the families had been asking for a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi since Feb. 6, with hopes of meeting before a final decision was made. The law firm said the families had never heard back, as of Thursday. 4 Forensics investigators and recovery teams collect personal effects and other materials from the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 on March 12, 2019 in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. Getty Images 'Boeing must continue to improve the effectiveness of its anti-fraud compliance and ethics program and retain an independent compliance consultant,' the department said last week. 'We are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits.' Last year, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after two fatal 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019. The company previously agreed to pay a fine of up to $487.2 million and face three years of independent oversight. The deal announced last Friday did not go over well with relatives of those killed in the crashes. 4 U.S. investigators examine recovered parts of the Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea on Monday, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018. AP 'This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history. My families will object and hope to convince the court to reject it,' Cassell said. Boeing has faced increased scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since January 2024, when a new Max 9 missing four key bolts had a midair emergency, losing a door plug, Reuters reported. The FAA has capped production at 38 planes per month. Last year, the DOJ found Boeing had violated a 2021 agreement that shielded the plane-maker from prosecution.
Winnipeg Free Press
24-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Boeing settlement not enough
Grief hits Kellen Deighton in waves, six years after his friend Danielle Moore died during an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash. So a recent tentative agreement allowing for Boeing, the plane's maker, to avoid criminal charges doesn't sit right with Deighton — nor does it sit right with others in Moore's Manitoba community. 'From the beginning, I thought that this should have resulted in actual arrests,' Deighton said. 'They killed my friend.' On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department filed court papers to reach an 'agreement in principle' where Boeing would pay or invest more than $1.1 billion for two plane crashes killing a collective 346 people. Under this agreement, Boeing would avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about its 737 Max craft. The jet type went down twice over a five-month span in 2018 and 2019, off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia. Should the new agreement unfold, $445 million will go towards crash victims' families. Boeing declined to answer questions about the arrangement Saturday. The punishment isn't enough, Deighton emphasized. He echoed scores of people who've lost loved ones and have called for retribution. 'There's kind of like a before and after moment in a lot of our lives,' said Deighton, whose brother dated Moore for roughly five years. 'Danielle was a very special person,' he continued. 'She was pure, and her intentions to make the world a better place… (were) so powerful.' Moore had been travelling to Nairobi, Kenya for the United Nations Environment Assembly. She was a passionate activist for the environment and human rights. She hailed from Scarborough, Ont., and moved to Winnipeg pre-2019, working as an educator for Canada Learning Code's mobile program. By 24, her resume was full. She volunteered for a swath of charities and had participated in Ocean Bridge, a Canada Service Corps. national conservation program, among other things. Moore now has tributes throughout Canada. In Manitoba, FortWhyte Farms has planted flowers in her name; Robert Smith School in Selkirk started an outdoor classroom with devotions to her. Kim Cooke, Deighton's aunt, teaches at the elementary school. She collaborated with Deighton, Moore's mother and others to build the new classroom's seating circle and gardens. A plaque commemorates Moore and the 17 fellow Canadians on Flight ET302. 'We loved her dearly,' Cooke said. She felt it wasn't her place to comment on the Boeing agreement. However, the victims' families 'deserve way more,' she stated. There's a Danielle Moore scholarship in Nunavut; the territory was among the jurisdictions Moore taught at via Canada Learning Code. Moore left a 'lasting mark' on FortWhyte Farms through her dedication to sustainability and community, FortWhyte Alive communications manager Mark Saunders wrote in a statement. 'Danielle was a very special person. She was pure, and her intentions to make the world a better place… (were) so powerful.'–Kellen Deighton Moore's legacy clearly lives on, Deighton stated: 'It's just too bad that I know she would've done tenfold.' A criminal conviction against Boeing could have jeopardized the company's status as a federal contractor, the Associated Press attributed experts saying. In 2021, the U.S. Justice Department charged Boeing for deceiving Federal Aviation Administration regulators. The department agreed to nix prosecution if the company paid a $2.5 billion settlement. Last year, federal prosecutors said Boeing violated terms of the 2021 agreement by failing to make changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws that it promised. Boeing agreed to plead guilty to the felony fraud charge last July. In December, a U.S. district judge rejected the plea deal. Boeing's corporate headquarters are in Virginia. It has a large manufacturing footprint in Winnipeg. – With files from the Associated Press Gabrielle PichéReporter Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle. Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Business Mayor
23-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Boeing, Justice Department reach deal to avoid prosecution over deadly 737 Max crashes
Ethiopian Federal policemen stand at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 11, 2019. Tiksa Negeri | Reuters The U.S. Justice Department said Friday that it has reached a deal with Boeing to avoid prosecution over two crashes of the plane maker's 737 Max that killed 346 people. The so-called non-prosecution agreement would allow Boeing, a major military contractor and top U.S. exporter, to avoid being labeled a felon. The decision means Boeing won't face trial as scheduled next month. The Justice Department said it reached a deal with Boeing in a letter to victims family members, which was seen bc CNBC. Boeing and the DOJ didn't immediately comment. Boeing has been trying for years to put the two crashes of its best-selling Max planes — a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight less than five months later — behind it. The Maxes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years after the second crash, a pause that gave rival Airbus a head start to recover from the Covid pandemic. But families of the crash victims have criticized previous agreements as sweetheart deals for Boeing, called for more accountability from the company and said its executives should stand trial. In 2022, a former chief technical pilot for Boeing was acquitted on fraud charges tied to the Max's development. The aerospace giant reached a settlement in 2021 in the final days of the first Trump administration that shielded it from prosecution for three years. Under that deal, Boeing agreed to pay a $2.51 billion fine to avoid prosecution. That included a $243.6 million criminal penalty, a $500 million fund for crash victims family members and $1.77 billion for its airline customers. Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019. Mulugeta Ayene | Reuters That 2021 settlement was set to expire two days after a door panel blew out of a nearly new 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines on Jan. 5, 2024, after the aircraft left Boeing's factory without key bolts installed. But last year, U.S. prosecutors said Boeing violated the 2021 settlement, accusing the company of failing to set up and enforce a compliance and ethics program to detect violations of U.S. fraud laws. Last July, toward the end of the Biden administration, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to the criminal fraud charge in a new settlement. A federal judge later rejected the plea deal, citing concerns with a diversity, equity and inclusion requirements for choosing a corporate monitor. Under that 2024 deal, Boeing would have faced a fine of up to $487.2 million, though the Justice Department recommended that the court credit Boeing with half that amount it paid under the previous agreement. Family members hold photographs of Boeing 737 MAX crash victims lost in two deadly 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people as Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg testifies before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on 'aviation safety' and the grounded 737 MAX on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 29, 2019. Sarah Silbiger | Reuters The U.S. had accused Boeing of conspiracy to defraud the government by misleading regulators about its inclusion of a flight-control system on the Max that was later implicated in the two crashes. 'Boeing's employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception,' then-acting Assistant Attorney General David Burns of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said at the time of the 2021 deferred prosecution agreement. Messages revealed in an investigation into the Max's development showed the former top Boeing pilot who was found not guilty of fraud in 2022, Mark Forkner, told the FAA to delete the flight-control system known as MCAS from manuals and, in a separate email, he boasted about 'jedi-mind tricking' regulators into approving the training material. Lawyers for victims' family members railed against last year's preliminary plea deal, equating it to a slap on the wrist for the corporate giant, which recently won a contract worth billions to built the next-generation fighter jet. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
The Star
15-05-2025
- General
- The Star
US Justice Department to meet with 737 MAX victims on Boeing criminal case
FILE PHOTO: American civil aviation and Boeing investigators search through the debris at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
