Boeing crash victims’ families say Justice Department set to drop criminal case, decry decision as ‘morally repugnant’

The US Department of Justice is set to drop a criminal case against aircraft maker Boeing despite the fact that the company agreed to plead guilty last year, according to attorneys for families of victims of two fatal crashes of the 737 Max that led to the case.

The US Department of Justice is set to drop a criminal case against aircraft maker Boeing despite the fact that the company agreed to plead guilty last year, according to attorneys for families of victims of two fatal crashes of the 737 Max that led to the case. The victims’ attorneys say they were notified by Justice Department officials Friday morning that it is looking at dropping the case and will instead reach a non-criminal settlement with the company. The new settlement will include an additional $444.5 million into a crash victims’ fund that would be divided evenly per crash victim. The attorneys said the family members are outraged by the decision and that they will object to the decision in court. “This is morally repugnant. It is a slap on the wrist. And it feels like a bribe,” said Sanjiv Singh, an attorney who represents 16 victims in the 2018 crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max. The Justice Department declined to comment on the statement from the victims’ families, and Boeing did not immediately responded to a request for comment Friday. The families’ attorneys said they were informed this morning that Boeing now no longer is agreeing to plead guilty, and would take its chances at a trial, and that is the reason that the Justice Department is considering no longer pursuing the criminal charges. But Robert Clifford, an attorney for families in the Ethiopian crash, said the is no “litigation risk” as now being claimed by the Justice Department, given the uncontested evidence against Boeing.