US attorney general to meet with Boeing 737 MAX crash victims' relatives

US Attorney General Merrick Garland plans to meet with relatives and lawyers of victims of fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes after some challenged a deferred prosecution agreement struck with the planemaker, the Justice Department said. In December, some victims' relatives said the Department had violated their rights when it struck the January 2021 agreement with Boeing over the two crashes in a five-month period that killed 346 people. They filed a motion arguing the United States government "lied and violated their rights through a secret process", and asked a US judge to rescind Boeing's immunity from criminal prosecution, which was part of the $2.5b agreement, and order the planemaker publicly arraigned on the felony charges. The Justice Department said in a court filing late Wednesday the meeting with Garland would take place "within the next week", and that it wanted to delay responding to the families' motion until then. A Garland spokesman and Boeing both declined comment. The January 2021 settlement allowed Boeing to avoid prosecution, and includes a fine of $243.6m, compensation to airlines of $1.77b and a $500m crash-victim fund over fraud conspiracy charges related to the plane's flawed design.<br/>