By Mike Spector, Chris Prentice and David Shepardson

(Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Division subsequent week will meet with attorneys for households of victims of two deadly Boeing (NYSE:) 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 individuals in 2018 and 2019, as the federal government decides whether or not to maneuver forward with a legal case, in line with correspondence Reuters reviewed.

The assembly, set for Tuesday afternoon, comes forward of an April 24 gathering scheduled for the victims’ households themselves to seek advice from Justice Division officers.

“As we’ve got … executed beforehand, we expect it could be productive to carry a lawyers-only assembly roughly two weeks earlier than the conferral,” mentioned Glenn Leon, the Justice Division’s fraud part chief, in an electronic mail to attorneys for victims’ households Reuters reviewed.

Boeing declined to remark. A Justice Division spokesperson had no speedy remark.

Boeing received immunity from legal prosecution over the deadly 737 MAX crashes as a part of an settlement reached with the Justice Division in January 2021 that concerned the corporate paying $2.5 billion to resolve a fraud conspiracy cost associated to the airplane’s flawed design. Boeing needed to abide by the phrases of the settlement for a three-year interval that ended on Jan. 7.

Two days earlier than the settlement’s time period expired, on Jan. 5, a bit of fuselage tore off the left aspect of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 as an Alaska Airways flight climbed above 16,000 ft within the air. Nobody was killed.

The Justice Division has till July 7 to resolve whether or not Boeing abided by or violated any phrases of the 2021 settlement stemming from the 737 MAX deadly crashes.

The Justice Division is investigating whether or not Boeing violated the 2021 take care of prosecutors, which imposed a bunch of circumstances on the corporate that included strengthening its compliance program, an individual with data of the matter informed Reuters. A violation might enable the Justice Division to prosecute a legal case towards Boeing.

The Tuesday assembly and subsequent April 24 gathering of Justice Division officers, victims’ households and their attorneys is said to the 737 MAX deadly crashes, versus the mid-air blowout involving the Boeing airplane through the Alaska Airways flight in January.

Nonetheless, the conferences come towards the backdrop of elevated authorities strain and scrutiny of Boeing following the more-recent mid-air emergency. Within the case of the earlier deadly crashes involving Boeing planes, victims’ households have criticized the settlement that put the corporate on a path to avoiding legal prosecution.

The FBI on March 19 informed passengers on the Alaska Airways Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight that they might be victims of against the law, in line with letters seen by Reuters. The letters mentioned the FBI has recognized the passengers “as a attainable sufferer of against the law. This case is at present beneath investigation by the FBI … A legal investigation is usually a prolonged endeavor, and, for a number of causes, we can’t let you know about its progress presently.”