A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a bid by families of victims of two deadly 737 Max crashes to reopen a Boeing criminal case, ending another attempt to overturn the outcome of prosecutors’ negotiated settlement with the company. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the families’ arguments did not show federal prosecutors violated their rights under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, a determination that prevented the case from being revived.
The court’s decision came in a challenge filed by dozens of families seeking to restart the criminal matter that had been dismissed in a lower court. The families’ lawyers argued that the Justice Department failed to properly consult them before reaching a deal last year with Boeing—an agreement that led to the dismissal of a criminal conspiracy charge against the company. In the appeal, the families contended the prosecutors’ process denied them a meaningful opportunity to shape the negotiations, which the families said began in 2020.
Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, called the appeals court ruling “badly flawed,” according to his statement. He said the victims’ families “were never given a meaningful opportunity to shape the negotiations between the Justice Department and Boeing, dating back to 2020,” adding that the appellate court’s ruling reflected an error in how those statutory rights were applied.
At the same hearing before the appellate court last month in New Orleans, Boeing’s attorney Paul Clement told the judges that more than 60 other families “affirmatively supported” the negotiated deal and that dozens more did not oppose it. Clement also addressed Boeing’s position on the crashes and the company’s response to the case, telling the court that Boeing “deeply regrets” the tragedies and has “taken extraordinary steps to improve its internal processes” while paying substantial compensation to families.
The deal that ended the criminal case allowed Boeing to avoid prosecution in exchange for payments and commitments. Prosecutors said it required an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation to victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures, according to the appeals record described in the report.
Prosecutors defended their conduct during the appeal by telling the judges that for years the government had “solicited and weighed the views of the crash victims’ families” as it decided whether and how to prosecute Boeing, the report said. The appeals court agreed with the government’s position on the statutory-rights question and ruled that the families had not shown that prosecutors’ actions warranted reviving the dismissed charge.
The Boeing case centered on allegations that the company misled federal regulators about a flight-control system tied to the crashes. The Max aircraft, which airlines began flying in 2017, incorporated significant changes, including an automated flight-control system designed to account for the planes’ larger engines. Investigators said Boeing did not inform key Federal Aviation Administration personnel about changes it made to the software before regulators set pilot training requirements and certified the plane for flight.
In both fatal crashes, the software repeatedly pitched the nose down based on faulty readings from a single sensor, and pilots were unable to regain control, according to the report. The two crashes took the lives of all passengers and crew less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019: Lion Air Flight 610, which plunged into the sea off the coast of Indonesia, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which crashed into a field shortly after takeoff.
The case also involved multiple turns in court over several years. The Justice Department first charged Boeing in 2021 with defrauding the government, then agreed not to prosecute if Boeing paid a settlement and took steps to comply with anti-fraud laws. In 2024, prosecutors later determined Boeing had violated that agreement, leading to a guilty plea proposal; but U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas rejected the plea deal and ordered renewed negotiations.
In May 2025, the Justice Department returned with a new deal and asked to withdraw the criminal charge altogether, and O’Connor approved that request in November. Prosecutors argued that going to trial carried the risk that a jury might acquit Boeing entirely. In dismissing the case, O’Connor said prosecutors had not acted in bad faith, had explained their decision, and had met their obligations under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
Among the families, Catherine Berthet—whose daughter, Camille Geoffroy, was among the 157 killed in the second crash—said she was “sad and outraged” by the appeals court’s decision. In her statement, Berthet said the ruling highlights what she described as the criminal justice system’s “inability to see where the public’s and passengers’ best interests truly lie.” Cassell, the families’ lawyer, said Tuesday, “One can only hope that another Boeing crash won’t be the outcome of this badly flawed ruling.”