Victim’s father ‘disappointed’ after judge refuses to void DOJ Boeing deal on plane crashes

The father of a Boeing 737 MAX crash victim says he is disappointed after a federal judge rejected the families’ attempt to renew an agreement that allowed Boeing to avoid prosecution.

IN 30 page judgment this week, district judge Reed O’Connor V Fort Worth said he had “deep sympathy” for the families of the 346 people who died in the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes. However, O’Connor added that federal law does not give courts the power to control agreements prosecutors make with defendants.

“If Congress had given this court broad powers to ensure justice in a case like this, it would not have hesitated,” O’Connor wrote.

This decision appears to have put an end to attempts by family members of some passengers to cancel the January 2021 agreement, which Boeing hit the Justice Department. Boeing agreed to pay a $244 million fine as part of a $2.5 billion settlement in which the government agreed not to prosecute Boeing on felony fraud charges for misleading U.S. regulators that approved the MAX.

A total of 346 people died in two separate crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving the Boeing 373 MAX. Michael Stumo’s daughter, Samya, was aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019.

“She had a charismatic 1000-watt smile. She gathered all her friends, gathered her family, ”said Stumo. “She was intellectually strict, beautiful. She had everything.”

Stumo was among about a dozen others who shared their grief and outrage at a federal court hearing on Jan. 26. At that hearing, Boeing pleaded not guilty to fraud.

Boeing accused of misleading Federal Aviation Administration about a key MAX flight control system that was implicated in the 2018 crash in Indonesia and the 2019 crash in Ethiopia.

Paul Kiernan is from Ireland to speak on behalf of his partner Joanna, who died in a plane crash in Ethiopia.

“We were not lucky because the planes of our loved ones crashed. But you know the people and chances are you’ve been on those planes. So Boeing also played Russian roulette with your lives,” Kiernan said Jan. 26.

Although Stumo said he was disappointed with the decision on the 2021 deal, he will not stop pushing for change. The Stumos and other families were active in federal aircraft safety legislation.

“We need to get up and learn aviation technology. We need to find out who is on the committees. We have to travel and go to Washington. We should try to get attention when people find out about the bad things that are happening,” he said. “No one gets up but us. It’s tiring, but we don’t need a third crash.”

Boeing did not comment on the latest decision. In a past statement, the company apologized to the families of the passengers, adding that “their memory encourages us every day to fulfill our responsibility to all who depend on the safety of our products.”

A lawyer representing the families said Friday they plan to appeal.