Clock ticking for Boeing to accept plea deal from DOJ

There is still no word yet on whether Boeing will accept a plea agreement offered by the Department of Justice.

SEATTLE - There is still no word yet on whether Boeing will accept a plea agreement offered by the Department of Justice. The deadline to accept was by the end of this week.

Under that agreement, the company would plead guilty to defrauding the FAA in connection to two deadly plane crashes. Boeing's 737 Max 8 planes went down in Indonesia and Ethiopia around five years ago, killing 346 people.

The mother of one of the victims says the legal fight will continue, even if the plea deal is accepted. She is not happy with the terms of the deal and feels that there may not be enough oversight in it to keep the public safe.

"I’m enraged that the Department of Justice, which is not pursuing justice, is offering this to Boeing," said Nadia Milleron, mother of crash victim Samya Rose Stumo.

Samya Rose Stumo had just graduated with a master’s degree in global health from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark when she got on a Boeing plane.

"She believed in data. She was a data geek," said Milleron. "She was going to help people’s lives get better and that’s what she told my mom in her last conversation. She said, ‘I just want to make the world better.'"

Milleron says her 24-year-old daughter was traveling to Nairobi to perform an analysis on the effectiveness of Gates Foundation money in Uganda. The plane crashed around six minutes after takeoff.

"We never thought that getting on a commercial airplane would be a safety concern," said Milleron. "I was horrified, I couldn’t believe it."

When a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon and the DOJ determined Boeing violated its deferred prosection agreement, Milleron hoped the hammer would drop.

"The public should expect the Department of Justice to serve justice and protect them from perpetrators," Milleron said.

When she learned about the details in the plea deal, she was taken aback by a lack of accountability for the deaths of the crash victims.

"Death is not part of the calculation of the fine that DOJ imposed on Boeing in this plea deal. Can you believe it?," she said.

Milleron says the deal also allows Boeing to play a role in the selection of the independent monitor that would oversee the company.

"Boeing would choose three monitors. The Department of Justice would look at them and say, ‘OK, we can’t accept any of these,' and then Boeing would choose three more. Supposedly, it's supposed to be an independent monitor," Milleron said.

She says the 11 (c)(1)c plea would also tie the judge's hands during sentencing.

"Boeing should go to trial on this case," she said.

Milleron says if the deal is accepted, victim's families will keep on fighting.

"We are going to court in Fort Worth, Texas, to ask him to please deny the plea deal," she said.

If Boeing accepts the deal, Milleron believes that the matter could go before a judge in Texas by late July.

FOX 13 reached out to Boeing for comment and are waiting to hear back.

As of late Friday night, the Max 8 crash victim's families and their attorneys were still waiting to see if Boeing will agree to the deal before the deadline.