‘They can’t move on’: families of Boeing crash victims demand justice

Paul Kiernan struggles to talk about what happened on 10 March 2019. He walked his partner, Joanna Toole, to a taxi, put her bag in the back and kissed her goodbye. He told her he loved her, and asked her to let him know when she landed safely. The message never came. Toole’s flight, Ethiopian Airlines 302, crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa killing all 157 people on board. It was the second fatal disaster involving a Boeing 737 Max jet in less than five months. On 29 October 2018, Lion Air flight 610 crashed minutes after taking off from Jakarta. All 189 people on board died. “For others, I guess they read it and see it as a business story, or something,” Kiernan said. “But for us, it’s a very personal thing.” Boeing did what beleaguered companies so often do when they want to repair a battered reputation: ousted its boss, reassured the regulators and attempted to draw a line under the matter. All the while, hundreds of families whose loved ones lost their lives awaited justice. Five years later, and even after this announcement, many feel they are still waiting. The Max disasters seemed to be fading in the public and political arena until this year, when Boeing again came under intense scrutiny after a cabin panel blew off a brand-new 737 Max, minutes after taking off from Portland, Oregon. The incident reignited questions about the aerospace giant’s management, production line and the fundamental safety of its planes. It is “the luck of God”, according to Kiernan, that a third fatal crash was avoided.<br/>