一家联邦上诉法院拒绝了数十个在两起致命的波音737 Max坠机事件中失去亲人的家庭提出的重新审理针对飞机制造商的刑事案件的请求。
这些家庭的律师辩称，司法部在去年与波音公司达成协议之前，没有适当咨询他们，导致下级法院驳回了对该公司的刑事阴谋指控。指控源于波音公司在与导致346人死亡的坠机事件有关的飞行控制系统方面误导联邦监管机构的指控。
在周二公布的一致决定中，美国第五巡回上诉法院的三名法官小组表示，他们不同意这些家庭的说法，即联邦检察官侵犯了他们在犯罪受害者权利法案下的权利，因此不能重新提起诉讼。
这些家庭的律师保罗·卡塞尔称该裁决“有严重缺陷”
“今天的裁决意味着波音公司逃脱了杀害346人的刑事司法责任，”卡塞尔周二在一份声明中说。“受害者家属从未获得有意义的机会来影响司法部和波音公司之间的谈判，这可以追溯到2020年。"
波音公司周二表示无可奉告，但上个月在新奥尔良上诉法院举行的听证会上，公司律师保罗·克莱门特表示，其他60多个家庭“肯定支持”这笔交易，还有几十个家庭没有反对。
克莱门特说，波音公司对悲惨的坠机事件“深感遗憾”，并“采取了非常措施来改善内部流程，并向受害者家属支付了大量赔偿”。
该协议允许波音公司避免起诉，换取支付或投资额外的11亿美元罚款，对受害者家属的赔偿，以及内部安全和质量措施。
在同一场听证会上，联邦检察官告诉法官，政府多年来“在决定是否以及如何起诉波音公司时，征求并权衡了坠机受害者家属的意见。"
2018年和2019年，737 Max喷气式飞机在相隔不到五个月的时间里坠毁，造成所有乘客和机组人员死亡-一架狮航飞机坠入印度尼西亚海岸附近的海里，一架埃塞俄比亚航空公司的飞机在起飞后不久坠入田野。
这个刑事案件经历了许多曲折。司法部于2021年首次指控波音公司欺诈政府，但同意如果该公司支付和解金并采取措施遵守反欺诈法，就不起诉。
联邦检察官后来在2024年认定，波音公司违反了该协议，该公司同意认罪。但是美国德克萨斯州地区法官里德·奥康纳(Reed O'Connor)多年来一直负责此案，他拒绝了认罪协议，并指示双方恢复谈判。
司法部去年5月带着新政和完全撤销刑事指控的请求返回，奥康纳在11月批准了这一请求。司法部认为，进行审判会带来风险，即陪审团可能会判波音公司完全无罪，使该公司免受进一步惩罚。
在驳回此案时，奥康纳说，联邦检察官没有恶意行事，并解释了他们的决定，履行了他们在犯罪受害者权利法案下的义务。
奥康纳还表示，判例法阻止他阻止解雇，只是因为他不同意政府的观点，即与波音公司的新协议符合公众利益。
该案件围绕波音公司为737 Max开发的软件系统展开，航空公司于2017年开始飞行。波音公司称其为737系列的升级版，不需要太多额外的飞行员培训。
但Max确实包括一些重大变化，其中一些波音公司淡化了——最值得注意的是，增加了一个自动飞行控制系统，旨在帮助解决飞机更大的发动机。波音公司没有在飞机手册中提到该系统，大多数飞行员也不知道。
在这两起致命的坠机事件中，该软件根据单个传感器的错误读数反复将飞机机头向下倾斜，狮子航空和埃塞俄比亚航空的飞行员无法重新控制飞机。埃塞俄比亚坠机事件后，飞机在全球停飞了20个月。
调查人员发现，在监管机构为Max设定飞行员培训要求并认证该客机飞行之前，波音公司没有通知美国联邦航空管理局的关键人员其对软件所做的更改。
“人们只能希望另一架波音飞机的坠毁不会是这个有严重缺陷的裁决的结果，”这些家庭的律师卡塞尔周二表示。
Court denies bid from families of Boeing 737 Max crash victims to reopen case
A federal appeals court has denied a request from dozens of families who lost relatives in two fatalBoeing 737 Max crashesto reopen a criminal case against the aircraft manufacturer.
Lawyers for the families had argued that the Department of Justice failed to properly consult them before reaching a deal last year with Boeing that leda lower court to dismissa criminal conspiracy charge against the company. The charge stemmed from allegations that Boeing misled federal regulators about a flight-control system linked to the crashes, which killed 346 people.
In a unanimous decision released Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it disagreed with the families' claims that federal prosecutors had violated their rights under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act and therefore could not revive the case.
Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, called the ruling “badly flawed.”
“Today’s ruling means that Boeing escapes criminal justice accountability for killing 346 people,” Cassell said Tuesday in a statement. "The victims’ families were never given a meaningful opportunity to shape the negotiations between the Justice Department and Boeing, dating back to 2020."
Boeing said Tuesday it had no comment, but at a hearing last month in New Orleans before the appellate court, company attorney Paul Clement said more than 60 other families “affirmatively supported” the deal and dozens more did not oppose it.
“Boeing deeply regrets” the tragic crashes, Clement had said, and “has taken extraordinary steps to improve its internal processes and has paid substantial compensation” to the victims’ families.
The deal allowed Boeing to avoid prosecution in exchange for paying or investing an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation to victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures.
At the same hearing, federal prosecutors told the judges that the government has, for years, "solicited and weighed the views of the crash victims’ families as it’s decided whether and how to prosecute the Boeing Company.”
All passengers and crew died when the 737 Max jets crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019 — a Lion Air flight thatplunged into the seaoff the coast of Indonesia and anEthiopian Airlines flight that crashedinto a field shortly after takeoff.
The criminal case had taken many twists and turns. The Justice Departmentfirst charged Boeingin 2021 with defrauding the government but agreed not to prosecute if the company paid a settlement and took steps to comply with anti-fraud laws.
Federal prosecutors laterdetermined in 2024that Boeing had violated that agreement, and the company agreedto plead guiltyto the charge. But U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas, who oversaw the case for years,rejected the plea dealand directed the two sides to resume negotiations.
The Justice Department returned last May with the new deal and a request towithdraw the criminal chargealtogether, which O'Connor approved in November. The Justice Department argued that going to trial carried the risk that a jury might acquit Boeing entirely, leaving the company without further punishment.
In dismissing the case, O'Connor said federal prosecutors hadn’t acted in bad faith and had explained their decision and met their obligations under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
O'Connor also said that case law prevented him from blocking the dismissal simply because he disagreed with the government’s view that the new deal with Boeing served the public interest.
The case centered around a software system that Boeing developed for the 737 Max, which airlines began flying in 2017. Boeing billed it as an update to its 737 family that wouldn’t require much additional pilot training.
But the Max did include significant changes, some of which Boeing downplayed — most notably, the addition of an automated flight-control system designed to help account for the plane’s larger engines. Boeing didn’t mention the system in airplane manuals, and mostpilots didn’t know about it.
In both of the deadly crashes, that softwarepitched the noseof the plane down repeatedly based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots flying for Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines were unable to regain control. After the Ethiopia crash, the planes were grounded worldwide for 20 months.
Investigators found thatBoeing did not informkey Federal Aviation Administration personnel about changes it had made to the software before regulators set pilot training requirements for the Max and certified the airliner for flight.
“One can only hope that another Boeing crash won’t be the outcome of this badly flawed ruling,” Cassell, the lawyer for the families, said Tuesday.
