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Boeing Crash Victims
FILE - Protesters hold photographs of victims, including Melvin Riffel, left, of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, outside Boeing's annual shareholders meeting in Chicago on April 29, 2019. Ike Riffel, a California father whose two sons, Melvin and Bennett, died in the crash, fears that instead of putting Boeing on trial, the government will offer the company another shot at corporate probation through a legal document called a deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA. (AP Photo/Jim Young, File)

A father who lost 2 sons in a Boeing Max crash waits to hear if the US will prosecute the company

Families of the 346 people who died in two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jetliners are waiting to hear if the Justice Department will prosecute the U.S. aerospace company

By David Koenig
Published - Jun 28, 2024, 12:40 AM ET
Last Updated - Jun 28, 2024, 12:40 AM EDT

As they travel around Alaska on a long-planned vacation, Ike and Susan Riffel stop now and then to put up stickers directing people to “Live Riffully.”

It's a way for the California couple to honor the memories of their sons, Melvin and Bennett, who died in 2019 when a Boeing 737 Max jetliner crashed in Ethiopia.

The Riffels and families of other passengers who died in the crash and a similar one in Indonesia a little more than four months earlier are waiting to learn any day now whether the U.S. Justice Department, all these years later, will prosecute Boeing in connection with the two disasters, which killed 346 people.

Ike Riffel fears that instead of putting Boeing on trial, the government will offer the company another shot at corporate probation through a legal document called a deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA. Or that prosecutors will let Boeing plead guilty and avoid a trial.

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