The consolidated mandamus petition challenged DOJ's 2025 non-prosecution agreement with Boeing following two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Families of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 victims argued the government violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act by misleading them about the timing of the agreement and failing to properly confer with them before dismissing criminal conspiracy charges.
Writing per curiam, the three-judge panel found the prosecution satisfied its obligation to "confer" with victims during a May 2025 video call where it explained the proposed NPA terms. "The prosecution was clear that (1) it was considering an NPA, (2) NPAs impose obligations on defendants 'in exchange for [the government] not prosecuting,' and (3) entering an NPA would require moving to dismiss," the court wrote. Circuit Judges Carl Southwick, Stuart Duncan, and Lance Engelhardt also rejected claims that DOJ misled families about being able to refile charges if Boeing breached the agreement.
The families had previously challenged Boeing's 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, which the district court approved despite finding DOJ violated the CVRA through "legal error" in not recognizing crash victims as "crime victims." When Boeing allegedly breached that DPA in 2024, DOJ negotiated the new NPA requiring Boeing to pay additional penalties and implement compliance measures while agreeing to dismiss the pending conspiracy charge.
The decision limits crime victims' ability to challenge prosecutorial decisions through mandamus petitions under the CVRA. The court emphasized that the victims' rights statute "confers no jurisdiction to review the underlying merits of a Rule 48 dismissal" and declined to create "an unlimited right for victims to appeal the dismissal of criminal prosecutions." The ruling comes as Boeing faces renewed scrutiny following a January 2024 Alaska Airlines door plug blowout.