The Department of Justice should impose a more than $24 billion fine on Boeing, according to the families of the 346 victims of two 737 Max 8 crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.
The families’ attorney, Paul Cassell, stated in a letter Wednesday to the Fraud Section of the Justice Department that a “maximum possible fine” is “legally justified and clearly appropriate” for what has been called “the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.”
The letter from the families came in response to a request from the Justice Department for their views on how the department should proceed, now that the government has deemed Boeing to be in breach of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement that followed the crashes.
Some 189 people died when a Boeing 737 Max 8 plunged into the Java Sea off Indonesia on Oct. 29, 2018.
Black box data from the Lion Air jet revealed the pilots struggled to fight the plane’s malfunctioning safety system from takeoff to the moment it nose-dived into the water.
Just five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — another Boeing 737 Max 8 — crashed near Addis Ababa airport just six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.
