She traveled back and forth to America — from Texas to New Orleans to Washington, D.C. — holding a picture of Camille as she attended congressional hearings, court proceedings and news conferences.

“It took two years to be recognized as victims,” Berthet said. “We had to prove that had there not been any fraud, the people in that plane would not have died. … We had to prove that the fraud was directly responsible for the death of our loved ones, and my daughter.

“We had to fight. We had to work. We had to present proof.”

Her friends and family in France supported her efforts but asked at times if she should take a step back. They worried that reliving her daughter’s death, and pouring so much of herself into the fight, wouldn’t pay off. The battle often felt lonely.

To keep fighting, Berthet said she doesn’t let herself feel the loss of her daughter too deeply.

“If I go deeper, deeper in my heart, and I really think about her, I can’t fight,” Berthet said. “If I want to be efficient, and to help … I can’t be with her.”

A “crash that hasn’t happened”

After the deferred prosecution agreement expired in January, the Justice Department had six months to determine if Boeing had met all the conditions it had agreed to. If it had not, federal prosecutors could pursue the criminal charge that had been put on hold.

Berthet, other victims’ families, and the attorneys representing them had little hope the Justice Department would choose to do so. In 2022, federal prosecutors said in court records that Boeing had already met nearly all of the conditions in the agreement.

But days before the deal expired, a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max plane midflight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. Since then, whistleblowers, aviation safety experts and the FAA have released a stream of accusations. The consensus among critics is that Boeing prioritized speed over quality, created a culture of fear and failed to overhaul its safety practices.

Berthet refers to the panel blowout not as a “safety incident,” but instead as the “crash that hasn’t happened.”

“One hour after the blowout of the panel, all the world knew that there was a problem,” she said.

She saw the accusations that followed as further evidence that the Justice Department should prosecute Boeing. But, after an April meeting with federal prosecutors where they declined to share what information they were considering, Berthet had all but written off the possibility that the Justice Department would pursue criminal charges.

In May, the Justice Department scheduled a May 31 meeting with victims’ families and said it expected to have a decision about Boeing’s compliance. One attorney asked the Justice Department to give them a heads-up before that meeting, hoping to prepare their clients for what they expected to be disappointing news.

The decision from federal prosecutors came two weeks early.

Though a victory, Berthet said this wasn’t the end of her fight. She was hopeful federal prosecutors would pursue additional criminal claims against Boeing and two of its CEOs: Dennis Muilenburg, who headed the company at the time of the crashes, and Dave Calhoun, who took over after.

By 3 a.m. after she heard the news, wrapped in pajamas and a pink scarf, Berthet found herself holding several emotions at once.

She was celebrating the victory, strategizing her next steps and mourning the loss of her daughter.

“Every day I pray, and I ask God to help us, to be at our side, and for all the people who were in that plane and all the families,” Berthet said. “And this time I prayed and I cried and said, ‘Thank you so much.’

“But this is the first step. Now, of course, we’re going to have another strategy.”

Referring to all the victims’ families, Berthet said “we were very often despaired, very often discouraged, angry, furious. But we were still together. … We know this will last long. We know that, but we are patient.”

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