Judge tosses Boeing criminal case over 737 Max crashes at DOJ request despite skepticism

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A federal judge in Texas on Thursday at the request of the Department of Justice dismissed a criminal case against Boeing

over two crashes of its 737 Max jetliner, despite expressing skepticism about the wisdom of dropping that prosecution.

Some families of victims of the crashes had strongly opposed the DOJ’s move in May asking Judge Reed O’Connor to dismiss the case in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth.

A total of 346 people had been killed in the two crashes. The first crash, of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia occurred in late October 2018, and the second crash, of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, occurred nearly five months later, in March 2019.