The U.S. Department of Justice announced that aircraft manufacturer Boeing intends to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge surrounding two 737 Max crashes that took the lives of 346 people.
On July 7, the agency determined Boeing violated an agreement protecting the company from prosecution for more than three years. That prompted prosecutors to give the company a choice between entering a guilty plea and paying a fine in addition to a sentence or facing a felony criminal trial and being charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Once the plea deal is approved by a federal judge, Boeing will also have to pay a $243.6 million fine—the same amount paid during the settlement in 2021
when the Justice Department said the company breached the contract. In addition to the deal requiring the company to invest a minimum of $455 million in its compliance and safety programs, an independent monitor will be appointed to oversee Boeing’s safety and quality procedures for three years.The Justice Department is expected to submit the plea agreement in writing to Texas U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor by July 19. While the deal only covers the corporation and doesn’t list any current or former Boeing officials, the company released a statement confirming an agreement with the agency, but no further comments were made.
Lawyers for families of victims of the 2018 and 2019 crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia called the agreement a “sweetheart deal” that is missing the point; according to Politico
, Boeing’s board of directors will be required to meet with the families of the crash victims. “This sweetheart deal fails to recognize that because of Boeing’s conspiracy, 346 people died,” a lawyer for some of the families, Paul Cassell, said.“Through crafty lawyering between Boeing and DOJ, the deadly consequences of Boeing’s crime are being hidden.”
The Lion Air pilots in the Indonesian crash were allegedly unaware of the flight-control software that could push the nose of the plane down without their input. Ethiopian Airlines pilots knew about it but could not control the plane when the software activated based on information from a faulty sensor.
Lawyers said they would ask the judge to reject the agreement. Federal prosecutors accused Boeing of conspiracy to defraud the government by misleading regulators about a flight-control system that was blamed for the crashes, both taking place less than five months apart. O’Connor, who has presided over the case from the very beginning, criticized Boeing for what he described as “egregious criminal conduct.”
O’Connor will decide whether to accept the plea offered by prosecutors or reject it, which would lead to new negotiations between the Justice Department and Boeing.
Two low-level employees, including a former test pilot, were blamed for misleading the regulators in the company’s attempt to put the crashes in the past. Regulators allowed Max jets to
stay in the air for 20 months after Boeing reduced the power of the flight software. As a result, thousands of safe flights were logged, and orders from airlines picked up — going to 750 in 2021, 700 more in 2022, and close to 1,000 in 2023.However, that changed in early 2024 when an emergency exit door blew off a Max during an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon, the incident prompted increased attention to the company’s problems and raised new questions for the Federal Aviation Administration.