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Families of Boeing MAX crash victims seek nearly $25 billion fine, prosecution


FILE - The logo for Boeing appears on a screen above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, July 13, 2021.
FILE - The logo for Boeing appears on a screen above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, July 13, 2021.

Families of Boeing 737 MAX crash victims on Wednesday asked U.S. authorities to impose a fine of up to $24.8 billion on the aviation giant and proceed with criminal prosecution.

The move comes a day after Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun acknowledged the gravity of the company's safety problems and assured a U.S. congressional panel that it was making progress on the issue.

Sitting behind him in the audience were relatives of victims of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, who held up victims' photos.

FILE - Boeing Company President and CEO Dave Calhoun apologizes to families of victims during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations hearing to examine Boeing's safety culture in Washington, June 18, 2024.
FILE - Boeing Company President and CEO Dave Calhoun apologizes to families of victims during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations hearing to examine Boeing's safety culture in Washington, June 18, 2024.

"Because Boeing's crime is the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history, a maximum fine of more than $24 billion is legally justified and clearly appropriate," Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The 32-page document explains the calculations behind the amount sought, saying Boeing "should be fined the maximum — $24,780,000,000 — with perhaps $14,000,000,000 to $22,000,0000,000 of the fine suspended on the condition that Boeing devote those suspended funds to an independent corporate monitor and related improvements in compliance and safety programs as identified below."

It added: "And Boeing’s Board of Directors should be ordered to meet with the families."

The families also believe the government should promptly "launch criminal prosecutions of the responsible corporate officials at Boeing at the time of the two crashes."

The case relates to crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia that together claimed 346 lives and comes as Boeing faces intensifying scrutiny following recent manufacturing and safety problems.

The aviation giant has again been in the public spotlight since a January 5 incident in which a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out midflight.

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