The Justice Department will drop all charges against Boeing for its role in the 737 MAX8 crashes several years ago in lieu of a pending nonprosecution agreement that pays victims.
Boeing will pay victims $444.5 million into a crash victims’ fund, divided evenly per crash victim.
News of the deal dismayed the family members of those killed in the two plane crashes, a 2018 Lion Air crash and a 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, and their lawyers indicated they will challenge it.
“They can’t just walk back from that,” Robert A. Clifford, lead counsel in a civil litigation case against Boeing currently pending in federal district court in Chicago, said in remarks shared with the Washington Examiner. “These are facts that they agreed to. You have all the facts you need to prosecute this case. These families are willing to take the risks that their government apparently is unwilling to take to hold these criminals responsible.”
“We are offended by this deal, and we will challenge this,” he added.
The agreement came after Boeing reached a deal with Qatar for up to 210 jets following President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle Eastern country. The deal, worth $96 billion, was touted by the White House for being the “largest-ever widebody order and largest-ever 787 order” and will support thousands of jobs.
The White House called Trump the “dealmaker-in-chief” for the move. The Wall Street Journal reported that one attorney for the families questioned whether Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg’s appearance at a ceremony this week in Doha, Qatar, with Trump influenced the decision, but a person familiar with the meeting said Doha was not mentioned at the meeting.
Boeing previously agreed to plead guilty to charges that employees lied to air safety regulators before the crashes, also agreeing to pay $2.5 billion to resolve the criminal investigation. However, prosecutors said in 2024 that Boeing reneged on the deal, failing to improve its antifraud compliance program.
The company then agreed to plead guilty before it reached a deal with the DOJ, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sanjiv Singh, who represents families of victims of the first crash, slammed the deal as too soft.
“We view the current tentative NPA effectively as a ‘slap on the wrist’ dismissal equivalent, and as such, I find it appalling and morally repugnant that this is even a consideration,” he said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner. “I am also appalled by the DOJ’s professed fear of losing at trial against Boeing. In what Alice in Wonderland world does Boeing win at trial, given the facts we know?”
Paul Cassell, an attorney for many of the families in the case and professor of criminal law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, asked the DOJ if he could have until next Friday to submit additional written arguments against the proposal explaining the families’ positions and to argue against the deal. The DOJ said it would respond to the families.
“Dismissing the case would dishonor the memories of 346 victims whom Boeing killed through its callous lies,” Cassel said. “We will be asking Judge O’Connor to use his recognized authority under federal law to reject any proposal like this, which would be clearly contrary to the public interest.”
The money is in addition to $500 million Boeing paid to compensate victims’ families four years ago. The Wall Street Journal reported that it would pay an additional fine of $243 million and would have to hire an independent compliance consultant to report to the DOJ.
Irish citizen Paul Kiernan, who lost his partner, Joanna Toole, in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, said if another crash happens and there is no trial holding Boeing accountable, then the family members “become complacent in the next crash and you guys didn’t do your job.”
Canadian Chris Moore, who lost his 24-year-old daughter in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, said the additional money doesn’t matter.
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“This isn’t about money. You have no humanity,” he said. “It’s about justice.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the DOJ for comment but did not receive a response.