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    Reaction of Crash Victims’ Families to the Resignation of Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg

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    Posted on December 23, 2019 To
    Reaction of Crash Victims’ Families to the Resignation of Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg

    The following is a statement from Michael Stumo, father of Samya Rose Stumo, 24, who was killed in the March 10 crash of a Boeing 737 Max8 airliner earlier this year. Michael Stumo reacts to today’s (Dec. 23, 2019) resignation of Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg that the company released in a statement this morning. To view to full statement, click here.

    “Mr. Muilenburg’s resignation is a good first step toward restoring Boeing to a company that focuses on safety and innovation. Now that it’s known what he and top Boeing officials knew, yet ignored, prior to the crashes, it has become clear how the company eroded in quality over the years. Their focus on financial engineering led to the preventable deaths of my daughter, Samya Rose Stumo, and 345 other people in two tragic crashes. Ignoring the risk assessment of 15 future crashes that they admitted is unforgivable. The next step is for several Board members who are underperforming or underqualified to resign in favor of a newly-configured excellence at the top level of the company and on the Board.”

    Paul Njoroge, who lost his entire family in the ET 302 crash, had this reaction:
    “While the resignation of Mr. Muilenburg is a step in the right direction, it is clear that the Boeing Company needs a revamp of its corporate governance. Muilenburg led the board of directors that negligently made decisions that allowed a flawed plane to fly. After the crash of Lion Air Flight 610, the board continued with the aggressive repurchasing of the BA stock – in December, 2018, the board authorized the repurchase of stock worth $20 billion for 2019. Such-like decisions were done at the expense of safety and innovation. The board needs a complete overhaul. The company should be led and managed by qualified individuals who are committed to adhering to its fundamental responsibility – to manufacture and deliver safe planes. The newly appointed CEO, David Calhoun, was one of the people who made these decisions. He is not the right person for the job. In fact, he should resign as well.”

    Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices in Chicago and Lead Counsel in the consolidated litigation involving the crash of the Boeing 737 Max8 jet in Ethiopia, also reacted to the news of Muilenburg’s resignation:

    “The victims’ families from the crash of Flight ET 302 have long sought the discharge of the man who led the company and the decisions that needlessly caused the deaths of 157 innocent people on March 10, 2019. Mr. Muilenburg and other Boeing leaders deliberately put profits over safety by allowing the 737 Max8 to stay in service after the Lion Air crash of Oct. 29, 2018. Boeing’s Board of Directors does not deserve a ‘pat on the back’ for this decision. In fact, their leadership decisions empowered Muilenburg and the company to create a culture where profits were put ahead of the safety of the global traveling public.”

    For further information or further comment from family members on this developing story, please contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell).

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