They can’t bring back their children, siblings or partners, but five years on, the families of the 2019 Boeing victims want to make sure a similar tragedy never happens again.
“We have French, Canadian, American, Irish, British, we’re all together and fighting for something together,” Naoise Ryan told reporters Wednesday, holding a photo of her late husband Mick.
The Irishman was one of 157 killed when a Boeing 737 MAX operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed minutes after take-off on March 10, 2019.
Ryan is among hundreds of family members asking the US Department of Justice to prosecute Boeing, along with relatives of victims of another Boeing 737 MAX crash five months earlier that killed 189 people on a Lion flight Air to Indonesia.
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“I can tell you, it’s hell,” Ryan said of losing her husband.
An inferno that is relived after each new meeting, such as the one held with justice officials this week, aimed at holding Boeing accountable — with little sign of progress.
“Coming here every time and meeting with this Ministry of Justice is traumatic,” he told AFP — adding, however, that it was “very important to be present.”
For Catherine Berthet, who lost her daughter Camille, 28, in the crash in Ethiopia, being with relatives of the victims is a “blessing”.
“We are very close, but we never talk about what happened,” Berthet said, her hands shaking.
The 56-year-old from France shared a photo of Camille smiling next to her little brother, who was miraculously found among the wreckage of the plane, along with a black dress she had been given for her birthday.
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“He died in vain”
The families’ push for justice comes as Boeing faces wider scrutiny after a series of blunders, including when a door plug fell from the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines in January, leaving a gaping hole in the cabin.
The U.S. Justice Department has a July deadline to determine whether Boeing violated a deferred prosecution agreement entered into after the 2018 and 2019 accidents.
The US aviation giant could face criminal charges if so.
Ike Riffel, who lost his two children in the crash, said he hopes the family members group can get justice for the victims.
“They’re going to get to the bottom of this and it’s a great group of people,” Riffel said.
He added that he was “going after the people of Boeing” and not the company itself, adding: “Until these people are eliminated and dealt with, I don’t see Boeing changing.”
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“We will never get our sons back. But our fight now is for justice, justice for our sons and justice for the 346 other people who were on that plane,” Riffel said, referring to those who died them in the Boeing crashes in both. Ethiopia and Indonesia.
Riffel says he wants to see Boeing go to trial in hopes it will bring some comfort and closure to him and other family members.
Nadia Milleron, who lost her 24-year-old daughter Samia, is now running for a seat in the US Congress and said she wanted to “prevent other deaths … so maybe she didn’t die in vain”.
“I think about it many times a day, my daughter’s presence, her spirit, her happiness,” Milleron said, adding that a cherry tree planted in Samya’s memory is now blooming.
“It’s just wonderful,” Milleron said, tears welling up in her eyes.
Source: AFP