Boeing on trial in Texas for the deaths of 346 people
A federal judge has ruled that Boeing must appear in a Texas court next week to be arraigned on federal criminal charges over the deaths of the 346 people who died in two Max plane crashes in 2018 and 2019.
“ Initially, Boeing was granted immunity from the US Department of Justice under a $2.5 billion deferred prosecution settlement entered into in January 2021 regarding a fraud involving faulty aircraft design MAX, never disclosed to the relevant authorities and officials before it was cleared to fly into the skies ,” the law firm Clifford, which represents some of the victims' families, wrote in a statement .
In Thursday's ruling, US District Judge Reed O'Connor of the Fort Worth-based Northern District of Texas said Boeing must appear in court on Jan. 26 for a preliminary hearing because the victims' family members are been excluded from the initial process. The judge ruled under the Crime Victims' Rights Act, which he should have applied. “ It is rare in the history of US aviation law that a company is called to answer criminal charges for the deaths of victims of aviation accidents ,” said the law firm Clifford.
Another lawyer and University of Utah law professor, Paul G. Cassell, also representing the families of the victims of the two incidents, told the Washington Post that O'Connor's sentence “ is a real twist in favor of an equitable justice ". The Justice Department said in 2021 that “ misleading statements, half-truths, and omissions communicated by Boeing employees to the (Federal Aviation Administration) have prevented the government from ensuring the safety of passengers .”
Michael Stumo, whose daughter was killed on the plane in Ethiopia, told WaPo: " We are delighted that they will actually be taken to an open court " to face the charge. He said he wants Boeing executives prosecuted:
“ I am also happy that we and other family members of the victims will finally be able to speak to the court about what Boeing's criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA and cause the deaths of hundreds of people cost us, including my daughter Samya Rose Stumo ,” he said I'm fed up.
Now we await the preliminary hearing and perhaps we will see Boeing executives finally answer for their mistakes.
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The article Boeing on trial in Texas for the death of 346 people comes from Scenari Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/boeing-a-giudizio-nel-texas-per-la-morte-di-346-persone/ on Fri, 20 Jan 2023 22:01:31 +0000.