Families who lost loved ones reacted with tremendous grief and even anger at the sudden turnaround in allowing Boeing to withdraw from its earlier guilty plea in a criminal fraud case announced by the Department of Justice (DOJ) late Friday, May 23, 2025. The DOJ said it does not intend to proceed with a criminal fraud trial against Boeing regarding two crashes of the 737 MAX8 aircraft six years ago, killing 346 people. Many family members have repeatedly said that the DOJ is not working in the public interest in this matter.
The DOJ announced that instead of proceeding with the criminal trial scheduled for June 23 in federal district court in the case against Boeing defrauding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding the certification of the 737 MAX8 jet that crashed twice within five months, it will instead recommend to the judge a non-prosecution agreement (NPA). The families were told just a week ago in a two-hour internet meeting of the DOJ‘s intent to drop all criminal charges against Boeing, but that before making it final, it wanted to hear from the families. The families since Feb. 6 have been asking for a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi before the DOJ made a final decision, but they have not heard back from her to date.
“This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history. My families will object and hope to convince the court to reject it,” said the families’ pro bono lawyer, Paul Cassell, professor of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. Cassell sent a written objection to the DOJ‘s new NPA by the 5 p.m. Thursday deadline the DOJ set. The families were found to be crime victims in the litigation under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
“With this filing, the DOJ walks away from any pretense to seek justice for the victims of the 737Max crashes,” said Javier de Luis, an aerospace engineer of Massachusetts who lost his sister in the second crash. “In spite of the mountains of reports and investigations over the last six years documenting wrongdoing by Boeing, DOJ is claiming that they cannot prove that anybody did anything wrong. The message sent by this action to companies around the country is, don’t worry about making your products safe for your customers. Even if you kill them, just pay a small fine and move on. Boeing has repeatedly shown itself incapable of changing their ways on their own. The Alaska Air door blowout five years after the fatal Max crashes, proves this. This agreement does not provide for a robust, externally supervised safety monitoring program. Why does the DoJ think that the results from this deal will be any different than the results from the earlier Deferred Prosecution Agreement? They won’t, and I fear the flying public will again pay the price.”
Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter Samya Rose Stumo also died in the second crash in Ethiopia in 2019, said, “Pam Bondi is afraid to try a case. She is reinstituting the coddling corporate criminals policy. Boeing remains a criminal corporation, and Bondi is enabling them. The next crash will be her fault.”
Catherine Berthet of France who also lost her 28-year-old daughter Camille in the crash said, “I am absolutely stunned by the DOJ’s decision to grant Boeing an NPA despite all the evidence we have provided showing Boeing’s turpitude and repeated lies before the first crash, between the two crashes, and for more than six years since. Lies to the FAA, to the Congress, to its clients, and to the flying public. The Alaska Airlines flight accident in January 2024, in which more than 100 passengers miraculously escaped death, is proof of this and should have served as a wake-up call. Three other recent potentially fatal accidents involving 737 Max aircraft are currently under investigation by the NTSB. But the government has blind faith in Boeing, to the point of letting it get away with the murder of 346 people, including my so beloved daughter Camille. For me, I will never get rid of my pain and my tears. By deciding not to prosecute Boeing and not to take it to court, the government is sending a message to the public that big companies are above the law and justice, even when they kill. Moreover, this NPA can be seen as a message that the families and the Government can be bribed to forget about crime. However, I have total confidence in the wisdom and sagacity of Judge O’Connor, who has always shown intelligence, and who called these crashes ‘the biggest corporate crime in the United States history,’ to act in the public interest and in the interest of safety, as he has always done.”
Despite the families’ stand against the proposed NPA, the DOJ in its filing said on May 23 it will go before U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor with a new proposal and will not be prosecuting Boeing despite its CEO and attorney agreeing in writing to a guilty plea to the conspiracy fraud charge months ago. Criminal Division | United States v. The Boeing Company | United States Department of Justice
The written response from the families submitted yesterday opposed the DOJ‘s acceptance of Boeing withdrawing its guilty plea in the conspiracy to defraud action against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). If accepted by Judge O’Connor, Boeing would avoid a criminal trial. The families are asking that DOJ attorneys take the case to trial in the interest of public safety.
For further information, contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell) or Pammenaker@cliffordlaw.com