Boeing 737 Max crash victims ask US to impose $25bn fine

Mr Calhoun acknowledged the mistakes the company made and said it had “learned” from the past. He also acknowledged that the company had retaliated against whistleblowers but said he has “listened” to those employees.

In the letter, Mr Cassell said his clients recommend that the Justice Department order a portion of the fine to employ independent monitoring of the company’s safety and compliance measures.

Boeing has been under fire for years, most recently when a door panel flew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, leaving a gaping hole mid-flight.

It also faced intense questions after two 737 Max aircraft were lost in separate, but almost identical accidents, killing 346 people.

In October 2018, all 189 people on a Lion Air flight died after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta, Indonesia.

In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed six minutes after take-off from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. All 157 on-board were killed and both these crashes were linked to faulty flight control systems.