The mother and brother of Samya Stumo, one of the Boeing 737 Max victims, protested at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Headquarters in Washington DC at noon today. They called for the resignation and criminal prosecution of FAA safety chief Ali Bahrami.

Nadia Milleron and Tor Stumo protested at the FAA headquarters building in Washington, D.C. handing out information and carrying signs that read: “Keep Boeing 737 Max 8 Grounded Ali Bahrami and Boeing Execs Go to Jail” and “Bahrami’s Interim iPad  Training When FAA Pilots Could Not Recover Successfully Killed My Daughter and 156 More.”

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the FAA conducted an internal risk analysis after the first of two Boeing 737 MAX airliner crashes that “showed the likelihood was high of a similar cockpit emergency within months.”

The Journal reported that the FAA analysis showed that it “didn’t take that much” for a malfunction like the one confronted by the pilots of the Lion Air flight that crashed into the Java Sea last year to occur.

“Based on the findings, the regulator decided it was sufficient to inform pilots about the hazards of an on board sensor malfunction that led to a flight-control system pushing down the plane’s nose,” the Journal reported. “The belief was that if pilots were aware of the risk and knew how to respond, it was acceptable to give Boeing and regulators time to design and approve a permanent software fix to MCAS, the flight-control system implicated in the crash.”

Appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday, Bahrami effectively confirmed the damning Wall Street Journal report.

“Based on our risk assessment, we felt we had sufficient time to be able to do the modification, and get the final fix,” Bahrami said.

 “The FAA and Boeing took a 10-month gamble with our lives and lost 346 people,” Nadia Milleron said. “The investigatory bodies looking into the crashes should seriously consider criminal liability.”

Michael Stumo, father of Samya Stumo called on the FAA to “fully disclose the errors it made that contributed to the death of our daughter.” 

“It should relieve any individuals making those decisions and errors from their positions,” Michael Stumo said.

“The FAA should reveal how it approved the 737 MAX 8 when it knew the angle of attack sensors were prone to fail and had no backup in apparent violation of FAA’s own standards. It should tell Congress and the public how it could avoid grounding the 737 MAX 8 after the Lion Air crash when its employees concluded it ‘didn’t take that much’ for another software failure to take control of the plane and push the nose down for a crash.”

The Stumo family lawyer, Robert Clifford, said that “Boeing relied on its close relationship with the FAA to make the decision to issue a pilot directive, rather than ground the planes after the Lion Air crash last October.”

“The FAA allows Boeing to self-certify the 737 MAX 8, then it effectively gave Boeing cover to hide a problem that took these lives in yet another crash four months later in Ethiopia,” Clifford said.