New York (AFP) – A US judge dropped criminal charges against Boeing on Thursday over deadly crashes of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft as part of an agreement between the company and prosecutors. The Texas judge’s decision stems from an agreement between the Department of Justice and the aircraft manufacturer to resolve the matter, announced on May 23, following the crashes which resulted in 346 fatalities. Under the deal, Boeing will pay $1.1 billion in return for the dismissal of a criminal charge over its conduct in the certification of the MAX, according to a federal filing. The accord scuttles a criminal trial that had been scheduled for June in Fort Worth, Texas.
The agreement resolves the case without requiring Boeing to plead guilty to fraud in the certification of the MAX, which was involved in two crashes in 2018 and 2019. Boeing has said it is “deeply sorry” for the crashes of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that killed 157, and a Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189. Boeing has blamed the design of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a flight handling system that malfunctioned. “We are committed to honoring the obligations of our agreement with the Department of Justice. We are also committed to continuing the significant efforts we have made as a company to strengthen our safety, quality, and compliance programs,” Boeing said in a statement Thursday.
When the outline of the deal was announced in May, family members of some MAX victims slammed the proposed settlement as a giveaway to Boeing. “The message sent by this action to companies around the country is, don’t worry about making your products safe for your customers,” said Javier de Luis in a statement previously released by attorneys for plaintiffs suing Boeing. Other family members expressed a desire for closure, with the DoJ quoting one family member who said “the grief resurfaces every time this case is discussed in court or other forums.”
Thursday’s announcement is the latest development in a marathon case that came in the wake of the two crashes that tarnished Boeing’s reputation and contributed to leadership shakeups at the aviation giant. The case dates to a January 2021 DOJ agreement with Boeing that settled charges that the company knowingly defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration during the MAX certification. The 2021 accord included a three-year probation period. But in May 2024, the DOJ determined that Boeing had violated the 2021 accord following a number of subsequent safety lapses. Boeing agreed in July 2024 to plead guilty to “conspiracy to defraud the United States.” But in December, federal judge Reed O’Connor rejected a settlement codifying the guilty plea.
© 2024 AFP
