Relatives of passengers who died in the twin Boeing 737 MAX crashes are scheduled to confront the airplane maker Thursday in a US court, some four years after the tragedies in Ethiopia and Indonesia.
The proceeding in Fort Worth, Texas, long sought by the families and resisted by the aerospace giant, is expected to include Boeing’s entry of either a guilty or not guilty plea in a US criminal settlement over the calamities that claimed 346 lives.
The families have already chalked up some victories from US District Judge Reed O’Connor, who last week ordered a Boeing representative to appear at Thursday’s arraignment after ruling in October that the Department of Justice’s deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Boeing was negotiated in violation of the families’ rights.
But those were stepping stones to the families’ ultimate ambition: Undoing key elements of the DPA, which required Boeing to pay $2.5 billion in fines and restitution in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution for charges it defrauded the government during the certification of the MAX.
The company and its top executives deserve no such relief, argue attorneys for the families, who also plan to ask the court to establish an independent monitor because “the Justice Department cannot be trusted to monitor Boeing,” they say in a brief.
More than two dozen relatives not able to attend filed statements on Wednesday with the court, including John Quindos Karanja, who lost his wife, daughter and three grandchildren in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
“The Boeing company should be held accountable,” Karanja wrote. “The US government and the FAA should help make the skies safe again for us and for generations to come.”
Boeing has avoided commenting on the case outside of legal briefs, but Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told CNBC on Wednesday that he felt “nothing but heartbreak” for the families and supported their right to a hearing.
“With respect to the legal proceeding itself, that’s not a subject that I’m qualified to talk about,” Calhoun said.
