The father of a Boeing 737 MAX crash victim says he is disappointed after a federal judge rejected an effort by families to reopen an agreement that allowed Boeing to avoid prosecution.
In a 30-page court ruling this week, District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth said that he has “immense sympathy” for the families of the 346 people who died in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes. O’Connor added, however, that federal law doesn't give courts the power to oversee agreements that prosecutors make with defendants.
“Had Congress vested this court with sweeping authority to ensure that justice is done in a case like, it would not hesitate,” O’Connor wrote.
The ruling appears to end an effort by family members of some passengers to nullify a January 2021 agreement that Boeing struck with the Justice Department. Boeing agreed to pay a $244 million fine as part of a $2.5 billion settlement in which the government agreed not to prosecute Boeing on a felony fraud charge for misleading U.S. regulators who approved the MAX.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
A total of 346 people died in two separate plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving the Boeing 373 MAX. Michael Stumo’s daughter Samya was on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March 2019.
“She was charismatic, 1,000-watt smile. She was bringing her friends all over together, bringing family together,” Stumo said. “She was intellectually rigorous, beautiful. She had it all.”
Stumo was among about a dozen other people who shared their grief and outrage at a Jan. 26 federal court hearing. At that hearing, Boeing pleaded not guilty to fraud.
Boeing was charged with misleading the Federal Aviation Administration about a key flight-control system on the MAX that was implicated in a 2018 crash in Indonesia and the 2019 crash in Ethiopia.
Paul Kiernan traveled from Ireland to speak on behalf of his partner Joanna, who was killed in the crash in Ethiopia.
“We are the unlucky ones because the planes of our loved ones crashed. But you know people and likely, you were on these planes. So, Boeing was playing Russian Roulette with your lives as well,” Kiernan said on Jan. 26.
Though Stumo said he is disappointed in the ruling over the 2021 deal, he will not stop pushing for change. Stumo and other families have been active in federal legislation on aircraft safety.
“We have to get up and learn aviation engineering. We have to learn who is on the committees. We have to travel and go to Washington. We have to try to bring attention when people find out the bad things that happen,” he said. “Nobody stands up, except us. It’s exhausting, but we don’t want a third crash.”
Boeing did not comment on the latest ruling. In a past statement, the company apologized to the passengers’ families, adding "their memory drives us every day to uphold our responsibility to all who depend on the safety of our products."
An attorney representing the families said Friday they plan to appeal.
