Relatives of those who fell victim to two fatal accidents involving Boeing's 737 Max 8 aircraft are demanding that the US Department of Justice order the company to pay over $24 billion, equivalent to around SEK 250 billion, and move forward with a lawsuit.
It concerns the two plane crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that occurred in 2018 and 2019 and together claimed 346 lives.
”Because Boeing’s crimes are the deadliest corporate crimes in U.S. history, maximum fines of more than $24 billion are legally justified and clearly appropriate,” writes Paul Cassell, the relatives’ attorney, in a letter to the department.
The requirement comes as the company faces increasing scrutiny after several manufacturing and safety issues in recent times. For example, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on January 5th of this year after a door plug came loose.
Last month, the Justice Department said Boeing violated an agreement that protected it from criminal prosecution after the deadly crashes, saying the airline failed to implement changes that would prevent violations of federal fraud laws, a claim the company denied in a statement.
The Ministry will notify the court by July 7th how it will proceed.
On Tuesday, current CEO Dave Calhoun was heard by the Senate where he apologized to the families for the crashes and admitted that Boeing is "far from perfect.".
Source: TT-DI.SE
