Catherine Berthet of France, whose daughter Camille was killed within the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, speaks Wednesday alongside different members of the family of victims after assembly with Justice Department officers.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Images
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Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Images
Catherine Berthet of France, whose daughter Camille was killed within the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, speaks Wednesday alongside different members of the family of victims after assembly with Justice Department officers.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Images
WASHINGTON — More than 5 years after the crashes of two 737 Max jets killed 346 folks, families who misplaced family members are still pushing the U.S. Justice Department to hold Boeing accountable.
Family members and their attorneys met with federal prosecutors for 5 hours on Wednesday.
They emerged pissed off and disenchanted.
“I’m left with the question of what was the point? What did I come here for?,” stated Zipproah Kuria, who flew in from London for the assembly. Her father Joseph Kuria was on his solution to Kenya, the place he was born, to do philanthropic work when he was killed within the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019.
Boeing has paid out billions of dollars in settlements from a pair of crashes in 2018 and 2019 that had been brought on by faulty flight control software. But the corporate and its leaders have largely avoided criminal prosecution after reaching an settlement with the Justice Department that primarily put the corporate on probation.
The victims’ families are still livid about that deal, which they see as a betrayal.
“You sort of wonder whether they’re in bed with Boeing,” stated Paul Njoroge, who misplaced his spouse and three youngsters within the second crash.
After a protracted day of conferences on the Justice Department, the members of the family gathered on the sidewalk outdoors, holding up photos of oldsters, youngsters, husbands and wives who had been killed.
Catherine Berthet (left), Zipporah Kuria (heart) and Naoise Connolly Ryan (proper) maintain images of kinfolk who had been killed within the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Images
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Catherine Berthet (left), Zipporah Kuria (heart) and Naoise Connolly Ryan (proper) maintain images of kinfolk who had been killed within the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Images
The families hoped prosecutors would take their issues about Boeing extra significantly after a door plug panel blew out of a 737 Max jet in midair over Portland, Ore. in January. The Justice Department has opened an investigation of that incident, informing passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that they are “a possible victim of a crime.“
“We did come here quite hopeful thinking, oh my gosh, we’re now on the same page, this is dangerous. But it was quickly apparent that, you know, the tenor had not changed,” Kuria stated. “So it was quite disappointing.”
The families have now met a number of instances with attorneys for the Justice Department. But they’ve gotten only a few answers to their questions.
“They say they hear us, but I don’t feel heard,” stated Yalena Lopez-Lewis, whose husband was killed on the Ethiopian flight. “To be met with so many ‘I don’t knows,’ ‘I haven’t read this report,’ ‘I’m unaware,’ is unacceptable.”
“We certainly hope they do the right thing and continue to pursue this case, continue to pursue it through a jury trial so the public can understand what happened when 346 people were killed,” stated Paul Cassell, a professor at the University of Utah College of Law and a former federal choose who’s representing the families of the Max crash victims totally free.
The Justice Department might lengthen the probation deal for an additional yr, or drop the legal case in opposition to Boeing altogether. That determination is prone to come inside the subsequent two months, Cassell stated.
“We are hoping the Department of Justice will do the right thing now,” stated Naoise Connolly Ryan of Ireland, who misplaced her husband Mick within the Ethiopian crash.
“We don’t want a third crash,” Ryan stated. “We don’t want anyone waking up to our situation.”