24-05-2025
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.
