Father who lost 2 sons in Boeing Max crash awaits word on whether U.S. will file charges against company

FILE – Protesters hold photos of victims, including Melvin Riffel, left, of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, before Boeing’s annual shareholder meeting in Chicago on April 29, 2019. Ike Riffel, a California father whose two sons, Melvin and Bennett, who died in the crash, fear that instead of taking Boeing to court, the government will offer the company another chance at corporate probation through a legal document called a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA). (AP Photo/Jim Young, File)

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Journalist

As they travel across Alaska on their long-planned vacation, Ike and Susan Riffel occasionally stop to put up stickers directing people to “Live wisely.”

In this way, the Californian couple will honor the memory of their sons, Melvin and Bennett, who died in 2019 in the Boeing 737 Max crash in Ethiopia.

The Riffel family and the families of other passengers who died in the crash, as well as in a similar one in Indonesia just over four months earlier, are waiting to hear whether the U.S. Justice Department will charge Boeing after all these years in connection with the two crashes in which 346 people died.

Ike Riffel fears that instead of taking Boeing to court, the government will offer the company another chance at corporate probation through a legal document called a deferred prosecution agreement, or DPA. Or that prosecutors will allow Boeing to plead guilty and avoid trial.

“The DPA is hiding the truth. A plea agreement would hide the truth.” – says Riffel. “This would leave families clueless” what went on inside Boeing while the Max was being designed and tested, and after the first crash in 2018, he pointed to problems with new flight-control software.

“The families want to know the truth. Who was responsible? Who did what?” says the father. “Why did they have to die?”

Ike is a retired forestry consultant and Susan is a retired religious education teacher. They live in Redding, California, where they raised their sons.

Mel was 29 and preparing to become a father himself when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after takeoff. He played sports in school and worked as a technician for the California Department of Transportation in Redding. Bennett, 26, grew up loving the performing arts. He worked in IT support in Chico, Calif., and customers still send cards to his parents.

“They were our only two sons. They were very enterprising, very independent, loved to travel” says Riffel.

In early 2019, Mel and his wife Brittney went on a trip “honeymoon” to Australia. Brittney flew home, and Mel met his brother in Taiwan to begin what they called a world tour. When they boarded the Ethiopian Airlines plane in Addis Ababa, he and Bennett were headed toward their final stop, South Africa, where Mel planned to do some surfing.

Back in California, Susan Riffel answered the phone when he called that Sunday morning. On the other end, someone from the airline told them that their sons were on the plane that crashed.

“When you first hear it, you don’t believe it” This is Ike Riffel speaking. “You still don’t believe it when you see that a disaster has happened. ‘Oh, maybe they didn’t get in.’ You think about all these scenarios.”

Another shocker came in January 2021: The Justice Department charged Boeing with fraud for misleading regulators in approving the Max, but at the same time prosecutors approved a deal that meant single-crime charges could be dropped within three years.

“I heard it on the news. It just kind of blew me away. I thought, what the hell?” – says Riffel. “I felt quite powerless. I didn’t know what a deferred prosecution agreement was.”

He and his wife believe they were deceived by the Justice Department, which has so far denied there is a criminal investigation. Boeing has never contacted the family, Riffel said, assuming that was based on advice from company lawyers.

“I have no confidence in (Boeing) to do the right thing and I have really lost confidence in the Department of Justice,” He says. “Their motto is to protect the American people, not to protect Boeing, and it seems to me they spent the whole time defending Boeing.”

The Justice Department reopened the possibility of prosecuting Boeing last month when it found the company had violated the 2021 agreement. The Justice Department has not publicly said what alleged violations it committed.

Boeing said it had fulfilled the terms of the agreement, which required the company to pay $2.5 billion, mostly to its customer airlines, and to implement a program to detect and prevent violations of U.S. anti-fraud laws, among other conditions.

The pending decision in Washington has implications for family members around the world.

The 157 passengers and crew members who died in the Ethiopian crash came from 35 countries, with the largest number from Kenya and Canada. Nearly two dozen passengers were on their way to a UN environmental conference in Nairobi.

The March 10, 2019, crash came just months after another Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Indonesian carrier Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board. The vast majority of passengers on the Oct. 29, 2018, flight were Indonesians.

In both accidents, the software known as MCAS repeatedly lowered the plane’s nose based on erroneous readings from a single sensor.

Relatives of passengers on both flights sued Boeing in US federal court in Chicago. Boeing settled the vast majority of these cases after requiring the families not to disclose their compensation.

The Riffels found strength and purpose in meeting with the families of some of the other passengers on Flight 302. Together, they pressed the Justice Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and Congress to make sure the planes were as safe as possible.

Many of them want the government to charge senior Boeing officials, including former CEO Dennis Muilenburg and current CEO David Calhoun, who was on the company’s board when the crashes occurred. They have asked the Justice Department to fine Boeing more than $24 billion for what one of their lawyers, Paul Cassell, called “the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.”

Relatives include Javier de Luis, an aerospace engineer whose sister, Graziella, flew to Ethiopia. And Michael Stumo and Nadia Milleron, who lost their daughter, Samya. Canadians Paul Njoroge and Chris and Clariss Moore have made several trips to Washington to plead with government officials to take a stand against Boeing and demand safer planes. Njoroge’s wife, three children and mother-in-law were on board, as well as the Moores’ daughter, Danielle.

Initially, a disparate group of family members connected via email to keep in touch with each other. Soon, especially after meeting face to face, they became more determined to do more than just mourn together; they wanted to change something.

“We want to find some meaning in what happened to our loved ones” This is Ike Riffel. “If we can make aviation safer so that this doesn’t happen again, we’ll have some victories that way.”

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