DOJ is open to investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, whose door plug blew out after an airline flight, according to Clifford
People who were aboard a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet whose door plug was explosively expelled after departing an airport in Portland, Ore., in January are being contacted by the FBI about a criminal investigation.
Mark Pegram said the world was finally waking up after being aware of it for five years.
Clifford and other lawyers for the crash victims argue that Boeing has violated the terms of its deal with the DOJ. If federal prosecutors want to continue the settlement, Boeing will have to keep on going as long as possible.
News emerged earlier this month that the Department of Justice was opening a criminal investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which took off from Portland, Ore., shortly after 5 p.m. PST on Jan. 5, bound for Ontario, Calif.
The door plug on the Alaska Airlines flight blew out in Portland two days before the deal between Boeing and the DOJ was due to expire. And lawyers who represent the crash victims’ families say that timing is critical.
The families are “optimistic” that the DOJ will be “more strict with how they look at this new criminal investigation from the Alaska Airlines case,” said Robert Clifford, a lawyer in Chicago whose firm represents families of victims from the Max 8 crashes, as well as passengers on board Alaska Airlines 1282 when the door plug blew out.
No one was seriously injured in the most recent incident. The Justice Department started sending letters to passengers that may have been a victim of a crime.
During Thursday’s interview, he said that he had seen letters to clients. That’s an important step, he says, because it’s something the Justice Department did not do after the Max 8 crashes.
There are changes that need to occur. There’s no question about it. “But we’re going to do so diligently,” said Brian West at the investor conference. We won’t rush or go too fast.
A professor at the University of Utah College of Law said that Boeing promised to change its corporate culture in order to make safety a higher priority. “But none of those promises seem to have been kept.”
The families of Max crash victims are being represented by a former federal judge, who is expert on the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. He claims the Justice Department did not consult with families before agreeing with Boeing.
A federal judge in Texas found that the Justice Department had broken the victims’ rights in February of last year. But O’Connor did not grant the families’ request to nullify the deal.
Pegram, Pegram and Lindquist: The Case of a Flight Lost in a Critical Collision at the Crab Passenger Terminal
Pe Gramm, whose family is a representation by the law firm, said that the more news comes out, the more frustrated they are as family members. “To see that five years on, the culture is still there where production defects are covered up, documentation is inadequate, whistleblowers aren’t being listened to, and there are huge problems there.”
The family is continuing to fight the case because they want accountability for the leaders of Boeing and they want the company to make safe planes again.
“Sam was somebody who fought for justice,” Mark Pegram said. “As you can imagine, it’s not easy to keep giving these interviews. We want our family members’ stories to be heard, so we do it. They are not just a number.
The plane lost a large panel as it rose over 16,000 feet, causing it to go into shock, terrifying passengers and ripping out their phones from the gaping hole in the fuselage. A flight made an emergency return to the airport just 20 minutes after taking off.
The FBI did not deny or confirm that there was an investigation when asked about it by NPR on Friday. A Boeing employee declined to comment.
The message, a copy of which was shared with NPR by Mark Lindquist, an attorney representing passengers, lists an investigative case number and tells the passengers they should contact the FBI through an email address set up specifically for people who were on the flight.
“I am writing to you because we have identified you as a victim of a crime,” the letter begins.
A lawsuit against Boeing claiming negligence, failures, and restitution of a passenger door plug, in response to NPR’s findings of the missing bolts
At least two groups of passengers have filed lawsuits against Boeing and Alaska Airlines alleging negligence and other failures. Plaintiffs in one lawsuit include Huy Tran, who was seated one row behind the door plug.
“If someone bumps your car on the freeway, it’s not like that,” he said. It’s like you almost died, the feelings come with that.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report found that four important bolts were missing from the Boeing plane — bolts that were meant to prevent the door plug from sliding upward, the agency said.
The debacle is the latest black eye for Boeing, whose reputation was already tarnished by deadly crashes of its 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019. The Max 9 is 9 feet shorter than the Max 8.
“Federal prosecutors say key Boeing employees ‘deceived the FAA,’ misleading the safety regulators about a new flight control system on the 737 Max called MCAS,” as NPR reported in January of 2021.
The deferred prosecution agreement had been set to expire three years after it was filed on Jan. 7, 2021. The agreement allows the Fraud Section of the DOJ to continue its heightened scrutiny for up to an additional year if Boeing fails to fulfill its obligations, including its promise to strengthen its compliance and reporting programs.