Boeing’s (BA) downfall as a plane manufacturer seems to be getting more severe every week as it battles multiple quality and safety issues with its aircraft.
Amid the company’s struggles, Boeing has quietly been in talks with the U.S. Department of Justice about reaching an agreement over potentially facing criminal charges stemming from two 737 Max plane crashes that left 346 people dead, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
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After the deadly 2018 Lion Air crash and 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, Boeing is reportedly being offered a plea deal that the crash victims’ families strongly object to as they claim it lets the company off easy for the deaths of their loved ones.
In the deal, which the families call a “sweetheart plea deal,” if Boeing pleads guilty to the criminal charges, it would have to hire a corporate monitor for the next three years. The company would also have to only pay a fine of $243.6 million, which is significantly less than the $25 billion fine the families are pushing for. The deal would also omit Boeing from having to face a trial.
“The deal will not acknowledge, in any way, that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people,” said Paul Cassell, an attorney representing the victims’ families, in a statement to Bloomberg. “The families will strenuously object to this plea deal.”
Boeing reportedly has until the end of this week to either accept the plea deal or go to trial as the Justice Department has until July 7 to file the criminal charges, according to Bloomberg.
Boeing first dodged criminal charges over the crashes in 2021
This is not the first time Boeing has been offered a way out of facing criminal prosecution over the deadly plane crashes. In 2021, Boeing landed an agreement with federal prosecutors to settle criminal accusations that it misled the government about the 737 Max’s flight control software, which allegedly contributed to both of the planes crashing.
The company was required to pay over $2.5 billion to settle the charges and was also instructed to create and enforce a compliance and ethics program that would prevent and detect any violations of the U.S. fraud laws in its operations.
Boeing violated the agreement by failing to develop the program, and in May, the Justice Department informed the plane manufacturer that it would be subject to criminal prosecution.
“For failing to fulfill completely the terms of and obligations under the DPA (the agreement), Boeing is subject to prosecution by the United States for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge,” wrote the the Justice Department in a May 14 letter to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who oversaw the agreement.
More Boeing:
- Another Boeing whistleblower dies after raising safety concerns
- Boeing whistleblower says he received ‘physical threats’ over safety concerns
- Boeing accused of hiding information of retaliation against workers
Boeing has been under the federal government’s microscope ever since an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5 was forced to make an emergency landing after a door plug blew off of the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft mid-flight. This resulted in the Justice Department launching a criminal investigation, which led it to discover that the company violated the 2021 agreement.
Boeing is also currently battling a lawsuit from the passengers who were on the Alaska Airlines flight, an investigation from the Federal Aviation Administration and several accusations from whistleblowers who allege that the company has retaliated against them for speaking out about faults in its safety and quality control practices at its facilities.
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