Attorneys representing some families of people killed in two crashes of 737 MAX jets have filed an objection to the federal plea agreement pending before a U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Tex., claiming it is too lenient on the aircraft manufacturer. Reportedly, some of the families want Boeing put on trial for its liability in the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines incidents.
The agreement between the U.S. Dept. of Justice and Boeing and now pending before the court involves a guilty plea to a charge of criminal fraud conspiracy, plus a maximum fine of $487.2 million and a penalty that requires Boeing to invest $455 million to regularize its manufacturing programs’ safety standards.
When two 737 MAX jets crashed in October 2018 and March 2019, killing a total of 346 people, the investigation into the causes revealed multiple efforts to conceal Boeing’s compliance with reporting requirements and awareness of the design flaws. The government agreed not to prosecute Boeing at that time, but entered into an oversight agreement that included a substantial fine and required the company to maintain compliance with federal safety regulations in its manufacturing operations.
Boeing also reached a previous settlement with families of victims in one of the crashes, agreeing to pay an unspecified amount to survivors of the 157 passengers and crew members killed in the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet.
While Boeing avoided federal prosecution in 2021 over its liability for the crashes, that safeguard was lost once the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Administration began investigating the circumstances that led to the January 5 incident aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet.
As a result of that, the Justice Department reopened the 2021 agreement, finally bringing a charge of criminal conspiracy against Boeing.
With the earlier agreement overturned, Boeing is once more open to charges of civil liability in the deaths of the passengers and crew members.
Boeing also reached a previous settlement with some of the victims’ families, Later, in November 2021, Boeing agreed to settle with the families of 157 passengers and crew members killed in the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight, acknowledging responsibility for the crash and agreeing to pay unspecified compensatory damages.
