(New York) Aircraft manufacturer Boeing and the U.S. Department of Justice have finalized a plea agreement that will allow the U.S. group to avoid a criminal trial in the case related to the crash of two 737 MAX 8s in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing and the US Department of Justice have finalized a plea agreement that will allow the American group to avoid a criminal trial in the case related to the crash of two 737 MAX 8s in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people.
“Boeing and the Department of Justice have filed a detailed plea agreement in federal court, which is subject to court approval,” Boeing said in a statement Wednesday, after the 83-page document was posted on a U.S. court website.
“We will continue to work transparently with our regulators as we take significant actions across the Boeing Company to further strengthen our safety, quality and compliance programs,” the aircraft manufacturer continued.
A period of about a month now opens, to allow the filing of motions by the parties, according to a document published by the judge about ten days ago.
Boeing and the department announced a tentative settlement overnight on July 7-8, in which the planemaker agreed to plead guilty to fraud during the 737 MAX certification process.
The plea comes after the department ruled in mid-May that the group had violated an earlier settlement over crashes involving planes operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines.
This so-called deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) of January 7, 2021 required it in particular to improve its compliance and ethics program, with a three-year probationary period.
Problems
But the group has been accumulating a series of production and quality problems for many months, affecting, to varying degrees, three of the four commercial aircraft currently leaving its factories (737, 787 Dreamliner and 777).
An in-flight incident on January 5 on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 proved to be the last straw, leading to a host of legal, political, regulatory and governance fallout.
The group agreed to plead guilty to the single charge contained in the 2021 DPA: that it “knowingly, and with intent to commit fraud, conspired and agreed with others to commit fraud against the United States” during the 737 MAX certification process.
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.
Only one person, a former Boeing test pilot, was prosecuted in the case. And acquitted.
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.
Along with the one filed Wednesday with Judge Reed O’Connor of the federal court in Fort Worth (Texas), Boeing must pay an additional fine of 243.6 million dollars and has committed to investing at least 455 million in compliance and safety programs.
Investments
This investment represents “on an annualized average an increase of approximately 75%” of the envelope originally granted by Boeing for its compliance program during the 2024 financial year, specifies the court document.
An independent monitor is also to be appointed to ensure that action is taken to address production and quality control issues, with a further three-year probationary period.
Under the agreement announced Wednesday, it will be up to the government – after a call for applications – to appoint and supervise this controller. Boeing will be consulted.
This appointment had been requested by the families for years.
They did not wish to respond on Wednesday.
When the agreement in principle was announced, the victims’ relatives said they were “very disappointed” and immediately filed a motion of protest.
This “generous agreement is based on misleading and offensive premises,” according to the lawyers’ request.
The plea agreement states that the determination of the amount of compensation for the relatives was left to the judge, and that the aircraft manufacturer’s board of directors would have to meet with them.