The federal court of appeals in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, denied the petition of families of two crashes of Boeing 737-MAX8 aircraft to move forward with its criminal case against the aircraft manufacturer for violating the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA).
In a 10-page per curiam decision by the three-judge Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, the court upheld the dismissal by a federal district court judge in Texas who dismissed the criminal conspiracy charge against Boeing for the crashes that killed 346 people seven years ago.
Paul Cassell, pro bono attorney for the families who lost loved ones in the 2019 crash and University of Utah College of Law professor, had asked the appeals court to set aside a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) that was entered into by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Boeing that denied the families the right to prosecute the aircraft manufacturer for criminal fraud as well as several other arguments.
Cassell said, “Today’s Fifth Circuit decision reveals how America’s criminal justice system continues to mistreat crime victims and their families. Today’s ruling means that Boeing escapes criminal justice accountability for the killing of 346 people, and the victims’ families were never given a meaningful opportunity to shape the negotiations between the Justice Department and Boeing, dating back to 2020, when a sweetheart DPA was put in place. One can only hope that another Boeing crash won’t be the outcome of this badly flawed ruling.”
Sanjiv Singh, Counsel for 16 families who lost loved ones in the first Boeing 737 MAX8 crash in 2018 of a Lion Air plane, said, “We are deeply disappointed by the decision. But the legal record built over these many months—exposing how the CVRA was violated, how Boeing escaped accountability, how victims were shut out from the beginning—will not disappear. It will inform future cases, future advocacy, and future reforms.”
The court said, “In January 2021, the Department charged Boeing with conspiracy to defraud the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 371, alleging that two Boeing employees had intentionally misled the FAA regarding changes to the MCAS system. [the new software system on the MAX8 aircraft that Boeing admitted caused the crashes]. The same day, the Department filed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) it had negotiated with Boeing, in which Boeing admitted responsibility for the acts charged.”
The appeals court went on to say, “In May 2024, the Department notified the district court that Boeing had breached the DPA by ‘failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.” The court, among other things, held that the families were not denied the right to confer with the DOJ regarding the NPA it entered into with Boeing.
In response to the families’ argument that the district court’s dismissal should be reversed because it is contrary to the public interest, the appeals court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to overturn the federal district court’s decision to dismiss the NPA.
Cassell said the families expressed extreme disappointment in the court’s decision today.
“We are horribly disappointed that DOJ’s Coddling Corporate Criminals’ Policy not only protects the criminals but denies rights to victims that Congress intends victims to have,” said Nadia Milleron of Massachusetts, who lost her 24-year-old daughter, Samya Rose Stumo, in the crash of ET302 in 2019. “Boeing is not being held criminally accountable.”
Catherine Berthet of France, who lost her daughter Camille in the crash, said, “I am so sad. Sad and outraged. The crash in which my daughter perished, along with 156 other passengers, occurred seven years ago. That crash should never have happened because Boeing knew and lied. Boeing has never been held accountable for knowingly killing 157 people on Flight ET302. No action was taken between the crash of Flight JT610 5 months earlier and the crash of Flight ET302, even though U.S. aviation authorities knew that the Boeing 737 Max would lead to another fatal accident. Boeing has never been convicted or even held accountable for the deaths of 346 people. How is this conceivable? I believe no human being in the world can comprehend it or figure this out. And today, while the Appeal Court is granting the NPA to Boeing and the Government, what upsets me most, in reading the Court’s ruling, is not so much that they are once again denying us any right to speak out on this NPA, but what it says about the justice system’s inability to see where the public and passengers’ best interests truly lie.”
For further information, contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell) or pammenaker@cliffordlaw.com.