Families of Boeing MAX 8 Victims to Appeal Judge's Dismissal of Criminal Charge

Families who lost loved ones in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet said on November 6, through counsel, that they intend to file an expedited writ of mandamus to appeal the decision of a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, dismissing the criminal conspiracy charge against Boeing for the crashes that killed 346 people seven years ago.

The families had argued before U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor that the Department of Justice’s proposed non-prosecution agreement violated the judicial review provisions of the federal rules by preemptively agreeing not to prosecute Boeing even before Judge O’Connor had ruled on the government’s motion to dismiss. Family members traveled from as far away as France, Ireland and Canada to ask the judge to reject the agreement for DOJ not to prosecute the aircraft manufacturer for criminal fraud.

Javier de Luis of Massachusetts, who lost his sister in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Ethiopia, reacted to Judge O’Connor’s decision: “The judge in this case agrees that Boeing cannot be trusted to put safety ahead of their own bottom line. He agrees that the DoJ motion is not in the public interest. Unfortunately, he also believes that he is powerless to do anything about it. But it is important for the public to understand these points. Boeing bought itself a get out of jail card. I pray it is not paid for by future families that will find themselves in our position, seeking justice for yet another plane full of innocent victims.“

“Judge O’Connor recognized that there are, in his words, ‘compelling’ arguments against the non-prosecution deal. But he reluctantly concluded that he was powerless to do anything about the reprehensible deal. We believe that the courts don’t have to stand silently by while an injustice is perpetrated. We will be rapidly going to the Fifth Circuit to ask it to reverse this decision, enforce the rights of the victim’s families, and deny the Government’s effort to simply drop these charges,” said Paul Cassell, pro bono, attorneys for the families and professor of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.

Paul Njoroge from Canada who lost his entire family, his wife and three small children, said, “Judge O’Connor’s decision to grant the DOJ’s request to dismiss this case feels like the justice system turning its back on us, the victims’ families. We have only been consistent in demanding a day in court, the public against Boeing. We have not gotten that. Our pursuit for justice isn’t about vengeance—it’s about truth, transparency, and public safety. When a company’s failures cost so many lives, ending a criminal case behind closed doors erodes trust and weakens deterrence for every passenger who steps onto a plane. The families have carried unbearable loss; the very least we deserve is a transparent process and real accountability. Anything less tells the world that powerful corporations play by different rules—and that cannot be the legacy of this tragedy. We will continue to pursue avenues for the pursuit of justice in this criminal case, including an appeal.”

Chris Moore who lost his daughter Danielle, 24, in the second crash, said, “We look at the DoJ’s Agreement to not prosecute Boeing with incredulity. They are playing down the crimes carried out by Boeing that killed 346 people. They have moved the goal posts and used the rules to serve industry. It is obvious that the justice for and rights and safety for the People do not matter to this Department. The DoJ had admissions of fraud from Boeing. They determined that they broke the DPA. They even began a plea deal with Boeing that never materialized. They have not conferred with Families openly; some factions met secretly. We demand that the DoJ be transparent with us. We demand justice. Boeing failed in doing their job; FAA was asleep at the switch; the DoJ abnegated their core value of justice: knaves all three.”

“Families of multiple Lion Air victims also oppose the order and support the immediate filing of a writ by Professor Cassell,” according to Sanjiv Singh, counsel for 16 families who had joined with Cassell’s group to fight the dismissal.

Cassell had argued in the families’ opposition to the proposed dismissal that the government’s NPA with Boeing would not provide sufficient oversight of Boeing and failed to account for the fact that Boeing’s criminal behavior was found to have caused the deaths of 346 crash victims. Boeing’s CEO and its lawyers had admitted to the fraud in a guilty plea issued four years ago.

Tracy Brammeier, partner of Clifford Law Offices who serves on this trial team, said: “The judge recognizes there is a miscarriage of justice on the part of government’s decision not to prosecute this case, and that this was not in the best interest of the public the government serves. Unfortunately, he feels the power to right this wrong is limited by legal precedent. The families are disappointed by the outcome but will act quickly to protect the interests of the families and the public on appeal.”

According to counsel, Filippo Marchino of The X-Law Group, the family of Andrea Manfredi is likewise disappointed by the ruling. They will join and partake in all efforts to seek justice for their son and for the other 345 victims of the two crashes. They’re hopeful, Marchino added, that the Court of Appeals will see what is truly at stake here, and provide the district Court with the tools to further justice and hold Boeing accountable.

In January 2021, DOJ charged Boeing with conspiracy to defraud the FAA in its certification of the defective MAX 8 aircraft and reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing.

In May 2024, following the blowout of an unsecured door plug aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX, DOJ found that Boeing had breached the deferred prosecution agreement by not putting in place appropriate corporate compliance and safety measures. In July 2024, DOJ and Boeing reached a deal in which Boeing was to plead guilty. The families objected to the terms as not punitive enough, and in December 2024, Judge O’Connor rejected the deal.

Rather than returning with a more stringent punishment, DOJ presented Boeing with the lesser punishment of a Non Prosecution Agreement, in which Boeing would pay a $243.6 million penalty, give $444.5 million to be divided amongst the 346 families, and make additional investments in its safety and compliance. In exchange, DOJ agreed to dismiss the criminal charge against Boeing. On November 6, Judge O’Connor approved the NPA and granted the government’s motion to dismiss. The families look forward to appealing the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

For several years, a big part of my job involved operating experimental electronic equipment in the back of various aircraft ... oddly enough, none of them were Boeing or McDonnel products ... one was a Douglas product.

In the course of installing and operating my equipment, I got to watch the various aircraft providers do their thing, including maintenance and inspections. I got to know the pilots pretty well through mission planning and execution.

Maintenance is of utmost importance; watching those guys meticulously care for ‘my’ and all the other aircraft in the hangar was a huge confidence booster. As regards flight safety, the owner/operator is much more important than the manufacturer. IMO.

I never equated the UPS plane to the Boeing MAX crashes.

If you want to talk about the UPS crash, do it on the UPS thread.

The spokesman for American Airlines’ pilots union

Oh, No! The Pilot's union doesn't like blaming the pilot! How unsurprising! The mechanics union doesn't like blaming the mechanics. And the manufacturer doesn't like taking the blame for what the operators did or didn't do. Sadly, a jury of people who know little or nothing about aviation, along with a judge who knows little or nothing about aviation, are tasked with multi-billion dollar judgments about aviation. You want to roll your eyes at something? Roll your eyes at THAT.

At this point, I have trouble believing that you have actually read my comments. You threw insults at me, based on nothing more than that I had asked the other fellow what he used to fly. That's not rational behavior. Try to do better.

A Boeing pilot told a co-worker he unknowingly misled safety regulators about a flight-control system according to the transcript of instant messages the company belatedly turned over to federal officials.

The pilot, Mark Forkner, told another Boeing employee about problems with the flight system, known as MCAS, during a session in a flight simulator.

“So I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly),” Forkner wrote in a message from 2016.

MCAS was designed at least in part to prevent the MAX from stalling in some situations.

After the Federal Aviation Administration certified the plane, without a complete understanding of MCAS, the system was implicated in two crashes that killed 346 people.

Forkner had asked FAA about removing mention of MCAS from the pilot’s manual for the MAX. - CBS Dallas.

MCAS was designed at least in part to prevent the MAX from stalling in some situations.

And it failed as systems do, that's why there are pilots. The total time for the crew in the Ethiopian crash was less than the minimum time to get an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) rating in the US. Their likely qual was that they spoke passable English which is required worldwide in commercial aviation. I ask again, did this failure only happen in those 2 jets? If not, why weren't there more crashes?

And it could be, you might consider, sometimes people have different skills sets, and when that happens quite often they misunderstand each other. For instance, you are not a pilot, I'm pretty sure, and you wouldn't know anything about piloting or training. That being the case, I kindly suggest, and with a good heart, that you keep your counsel to yourself. Or maybe you would get better results advising a surgeon how to remove an inflamed appendix. See how that works?

You do make valid points and you can argue those but the fact is that MCAS airplanes have been flying around the world with normal pilots with no problems. Hmmm?

“The only ones that say that are those who are unable to understand the technical facts.”

Apparently you don’t know the facts.

“Post number 9 is from a facts based person.”

Yes. Unqualified pilots. Unqualified airline.

Runaway stabilizer and didn’t reason to use the runaway stabilizer procedure.

From his link:

On the Lion Air flight in October, pilots were apparently unaware of MCAS. As various warnings went off in the cockpit, they never reached the conclusion to use the runaway stabilizer procedure

“Your number one on the list of people here that don’t know your A** from a hole in the ground.”

You need to get your life in order and quit wasting your time and emotion on blogs.

To: TexasGator
Do you have to be an ass every day?
84 posted on 9/26/2015, 6:24:20 PM by Jim Robinson

https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3341298/posts?page=84#84

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