It was Boeing Serious problems All year long but it appears the company may be in deep disarray. after lawmakers insultingly shouted down the CEO of the embattled planemaker during the disaster Congressional hearing Earlier this week, lawyers for the families of victims of the infamous 737 MAX plane crash urged the Justice Department to take action against the company and its former leadership.
737 Max plane crash This happened in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in EthiopiaIt was one of the worst commercial aviation disasters in history. In 2021, company executives avoided criminal charges by reaching… Deferred prosecution agreement With the federal government. In May, the Justice Department said Boeing had a recent series of safety issues and internal problems Indicates a breach of that previous agreement. Now, lawyers for the victims’ families have published a 32-page letter urging the government to take action against the former executives, and the company itself.
Specifically, these lawyers proposed that the government criminally prosecute the former executives who were running the company at the time of the collapses, while also fining the company $24 billion.
“The salient fact in this case is that Boeing lied, and people died,” Paul Cassel, one of the attorneys, said in the letter. “Indeed, 346 people died in the most serious corporate crime in our nation’s history. This staggering loss should be reflected in the sentencing of this case, including the fine. Indeed, it would be morally reprehensible for the criminal justice system to be unable to determine The enormous human costs resulting from the Boeing crime.
Gizmodo has reached out to Boeing and the Department of Justice for comment and will update this story if they respond.
Calls to action follow the latest Congressional hearing, where lawmakers questioned Boeing about its recent safety problems. During his opening remarks, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the committee where Tuesday’s hearing was held, said he felt there was “mounting evidence of a violation of the deferred prosecution agreement entered into in 2021 with the U.S. Department of Justice.” He added: “In fact, there is almost overwhelming evidence – from my perspective, as a former prosecutor – that the prosecution should be pursued.”
Other lawmakers joined in attacking the company. Republican lawmaker Josh Hawley took time out of his busy schedule to verbally out the planemaker’s current CEO, Dave Calhoun. “You don’t focus on safety, you don’t focus on quality, you don’t focus on transparency, it’s all on the record,” Hawley said. “But in reality, you’re focusing on exactly what you were hired to do, which is cutting procedures, getting rid of safety measures, getting stuck with your employees, cutting jobs because you’re trying to extract every bit of profit from this company.
The recent congressional hearing is one of many that have occurred as a result of various ongoing allegations about deficiencies in Boeing’s safety procedures. Since a bad flight in January in which part of Boeing’s fuselage exploded, the company has been ensnared in ongoing controversy, including several high-profile plane malfunctions, whistleblower allegations, and several federal investigations.