Relatives of 346 people killed in two Boeing airliner disasters want the aerospace firm’s proposed plea deal rejected, so they can secure genuine “justice for the deaths”, the mother of a victim has said. In exchange for not going on trial, Boeing has agreed with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to plead guilty to one charge of fraud. The company has admitted to deceiving regulators over problems with the design of its 737 Max aircraft before two of them crashed, in Indonesia in 2018 and in Ethiopia the following year .
If approved by a US judge, the agreement requires Boeing to pay a $243.6m (£190m) fine and spend at least $455m (£355m) on safety and compliance improvements over the next three years, while being scrutinised by an independent monitor. But families of the victims are upset that this “sweetheart deal” only involves a fraud charge, not their allegations of manslaughter against the company, which Boeing has never accepted.
Nadia Milleron, the mother of Samya Stumo who died in the 2019 crash, told i that relatives like her “are looking for justice over the deaths, not over some paperwork”. Accusing the DoJ of letting them down, she said: “346 people died, but you still don’t want to mention that in any charges or the plea deal?” US District Judge Reed O’Connor will decide whether or not to approve the deal, following a hearing expected to go ahead later this month in Fort Worth, Texas. Ms Milleron is frustrated that the agreement would �.
