Boeing reaches deal to avoid prosecution over 737 Max crashes
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The US justice department has struck a deal with Boeing that allows the plane maker to avoid prosecution for defrauding aviation regulators, provided a federal judge approves the agreement, according to a securities filing.
Signed by the two parties last week and detailed in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, it confirms terms laid out in a tentative agreement submitted in court by the Department of Justice last month.
It allows Boeing to withdraw an earlier guilty plea, which has angered family members who lost loved ones in two fatal crashes of the 737 Max in 2018 and 2019 that claimed the lives of a combined 346 people. Boeing will pay the families $444.5mn in compensation.
The families are fighting the deal in court. Boeing acknowledged in its securities filing the agreement settled the case “subject to court proceedings”. Attorneys representing the families will brief the court by June 18, and Boeing and the DoJ will have one week to reply.
Judge Reed O’Connor’s rulings have caused twists in the case before. In 2022, he ruled that the families met the legal definition of crime victims. In December, he rejected a plea deal from July, citing a diversity, equity and inclusion provision and too little court oversight in selecting an independent monitor.
But if O’Connor signs off on the latest deal, it will bring to an end one of the DoJ’s most fraught legal tussles, which for years has frustrated the victims’ families and hung over Boeing’s efforts to turn around its business.
The case stems from the two crashes which led regulators worldwide to ground the jet. The cause was traced to flight control software that, when triggered in error, repeatedly forced the nose of the plane downward.
Boeing agreed in July last year to plead guilty to one count of defrauding the US government for misleading the US Federal Aviation Administration regarding flaws in the software.
The DoJ originally deferred prosecution of Boeing in 2021 after it agreed to pay $2.5bn. Prosecutors agreed to resolve the case in three years if the company co-operated with prosecutors and established a compliance programme.
But in January 2024, shortly before charges were scheduled to be dropped, a door flew off a 737 Max during a commercial flight, and prosecutors decided to pursue the case.
