Guardian:

Families of Boeing crash victims demand prosecution for ‘deadliest corporate crime in US history’

Attorney for families says plane maker should be fined $25bn, but amount could be reduced if Boeing improved safety standards

People work on a 737 Max aircraft at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, on 27 March 2019. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

Edward Helmore

Thu 20 Jun 2024 23.20 AEST

Families of the victims of two Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia have demanded that the plane maker be criminally prosecuted and fined $25bn for “the deadliest corporate crime in US history”.

In a letter to the US justice department, Paul Cassell, an attorney for 15 victims’ families, said that the mount is “legally justified and clearly appropriate”, but could be significantly reduced if Boeing improved safety standards and agreed to an independent monitor.

The letter comes after Boeing’s CEO, Dave Calhoun, stood and apologized to the families of the twin accidents’ 346 victims, saying everyone at Boeing was “‘deeply sorry for your losses”, at a Senate hearing in Washington DC.

Senators called on the company to fix its “broken safety culture”. The air crashes involving the 737 Max came in 2018, when a Lion Air jet crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board, and in early 2019 when an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed near Addis Ababa, killing 157.

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Both crashes were blamed on a faulty anti-stall system that the pilots of the planes had not been instructed on how to operate and had pushed the aircraft into fatal dives.

Boeing and the justice department did not immediately respond to the petition.

The Seattle plane maker is under mounting pressure over manufacturing failures. A door blew off a 737 Max in mid-flight in January, prompting federal prosecutors to consider reversing an expiring non-prosecution agreement over the 737 Max crashes.

Justice department officials have told victims’ families that individual prosecutions are unlikely given a five year statute of limitations.

In April, Boeing told the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) about potentially falsified inspection records related to the wings of 787 Dreamliner planes and it would need to reinspect some of the model still in production.

Prosecutors now have until 7 July to decide what penalties Boeing should face. At the Capitol Hill hearings this week, Democrat Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal said “the evidence is near-overwhelming to justify” Boeing’s prosecution.

The shares in the company are down by one-third this year and the company has warned that it is likely to burn through $8bn in cash in the first half of the year. Calhoun is stepping down, marking the second CEO to do so since the twin crashes.

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Trust in aviation safety has been further undermined by recent reports that counterfeit titanium from a little-known Chinese company was used in parts purchased by both Boeing and European rival Airbus.

Fake documentation certifying the material’s authenticity is being investigated by the FAA and Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for Boeing and wings for Airbus.

The FAA said in a statement that it is investigating the scope of the problem after Boeing reported the “procurement of material through a distributor who may have falsified or provided incorrect records”.

Among the families of passengers killed in Indonesian and Ethiopian 737 Max crashes was Zipporah Kuria, whose father was killed in the second incident. Kuria told the BBC the families would “continue to press the US government to hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people. We will not rest until we see justice.”