Families of those killed in the 737 MAX crash wonder if Boeing established a culture of safety.
Families of the victims of the two 737 MAX crashes in Texas, the United States, are requesting that the judge appoint an impartial party to investigate Boeing’s culture of safety and ethics as the aerospace corporation prepares to testify before a court there.
The family members submitted a brief on January 25, 2023, the day before Boeing’s representatives were scheduled to show up in court on January 26, 2023, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) and Boeing reached a settlement so that neither party would face fraud charges, but district judge Reed O’Connor nonetheless ordered Boeing to appear in court because the DoJ broke a law protecting victims’ rights by secretly negotiating with businesses without informing the affected parties.
The judge’s intentions on removing Boeing’s immunity from criminal prosecution in relation to the two deadly crashes that occurred in Ethiopia and Indonesia and resulted in a total of 346 fatalities are still unknown.
The victims’ relatives claim in the filed brief that the planemaker “committed the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.”
Additionally, everyone on board the wrecked plane would still be alive today if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hadn’t been tricked in a “criminal plot.” The filing stated, “Only an impartial monitor — the proverbial second set of eyes — can begin to rebuild confidence in Boeing and ensure the community’s safety.
In accordance with the terms of the agreement with the DoJ, Boeing agreed to pay up to $2.5 billion in fines and compensation to airlines, governments, and the relatives of the victims. In the agreement, the company also acknowledged that it had misled the FAA.
On January 25, 2023, CNBC quoted David Calhoun as saying that “my reaction to the families is always the same, simply nothing but sadness.” David Calhoun succeeded Dennis Muilenburg as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Boeing after the latter was fired as a result of the 737 MAX issue.