(Washington) Negotiations between Boeing and the U.S. government over the terms of the group’s guilty plea in the criminal case related to the crashes of two 737 MAX 8s in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people, could drag on longer than initially expected.
According to documents sent to the federal court in Texas (south), responsible for the case and which AFP was able to consult, “the government remains optimistic that the parties will find an agreement by July 19, the parties could nevertheless need a few additional days to finalize it.”
At the beginning of July, a previous progress report anticipated the transmission of the final agreement to the judge by July 19 at the latest.
The plea agreement comes after the ministry ruled in mid-May that the group had violated an earlier agreement over plane crashes involving Indonesian airline Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines.
This so-called deferred prosecution agreement of January 7, 2021 required it in particular to improve its compliance and ethics program, with a three-year probationary period.
PHOTO MULUGETA AYENE, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Workers collect debris at the crash site of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 on March 12, 2019.
But the group has been accumulating a series of production and quality problems for many months. The latest episode: the American regulator (Federal Aviation Administration) requested on Monday the “immediate” inspection of more than 2,600 aircraft of the 737 family in the United States for a problem with the attachment of the oxygen generators.
Following the two crashes, all 737 MAX aircraft were grounded for 20 months in the United States and around the world. Boeing admitted in April 2019 that its MCAS anti-stall software was partly responsible.
Under the 2021 settlement, Boeing paid $2.5 billion — including a $243.6 million fine — in exchange for immunity for its executives from criminal prosecution.
Only one person, a former Boeing test pilot, was prosecuted in the case. And acquitted.
The tentative agreement under negotiation provides for an additional fine of $243.6 million and a minimum investment of $455 million in “compliance and security programs.”
According to the agreement, the amount of compensation for the latter will be determined by the court and the aircraft manufacturer’s board of directors will have to meet with them.