A U.S. federal appeals court has denied a bid by families of victims of two Boeing 737 Max crashes to revive a criminal fraud charge against the aerospace giant. The ruling, issued on March 28, 2026, by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, upholds a lower court's decision.
The families had sought to overturn a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) between Boeing and the Justice Department. That agreement had shielded Boeing from a criminal conspiracy to defraud the U.S. charge related to the aircraft's flawed flight control system, which was implicated in the 2018 and 2019 crashes that killed 346 people.
The appeals court found that the district court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting the families' request to act as third parties to challenge the DPA. The judges stated the families were not parties to the agreement and that the court's role was limited to reviewing whether the DPA was constitutional.
This ruling represents a significant legal setback for the families in their prolonged quest for criminal accountability from Boeing. The Justice Department is currently conducting a separate review to determine if Boeing violated the terms of the 2021 agreement, a decision that could lead to new charges.
