A federal court in Texas on Thursday granted the government's plea to drop a criminal conspiracy allegation against Boeing over two 737 Max airplane disasters that claimed 346 lives.
The American aircraft corporation agreed to pay or invest an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for the relatives of the crash victims, and internal safety and quality measures as part of an agreement to drop the allegation. Instead of hiring an impartial monitor, the deal allows Boeing to select its own compliance consultant.
Boeing allegedly misled government authorities about a flight control system that was subsequently connected to the deadly planes, according to the prosecution.
The decision was made following an emotional hearing in September in Fort Worth where family members of some of the victims pleaded with U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor to reject the agreement and designate a special prosecutor.
According to O'Connor's letter on Thursday, the agreement "fails to secure the necessary accountability to ensure the safety of the flying public."
However, he stated that the court cannot stop the dismissal just because it doesn't agree with the government's assessment that the agreement is in the public interest. According to the Justice Department, a jury trial might spare Boeing from additional penalties.
The judge further declared that the government had fulfilled its requirements under the Crime Victims' Rights Act, had not acted in bad faith, and had provided an explanation for its decision.
In 2018 and 2019, two 737 Max aircraft crashed less than five months apart, killing all of the passengers and crew: an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crashed into a field after taking off from Addis Ababa, and a Lion Air aircraft crashed into the sea off the coast of Indonesia. O'Connor's ruling will be appealed by some of the victims' families.
Paul Njoroge, a Canadian who lost his wife and three young children in the Ethiopian crash, said in a statement issued by the families' lawyers, "When a company's failures cost so many lives, ending a criminal case behind closed doors erodes trust and weakens deterrence for every passenger who steps onto a plane."
Since the Justice Department initially accused Boeing of cheating the government in 2021 and promised not to prosecute the firm if it paid a settlement and complied with anti fraud regulations, the lengthy case has taken many different turns.
But last year, federal prosecutors claimed that Boeing had broken the contract, and Boeing consented to enter a guilty plea. O'Connor turned down the plea agreement.
Following the decision on Thursday, Boeing said in a statement that it will uphold the agreement and carry on "the significant efforts we have made as a company to strengthen our safety, quality, and compliance programs."
According to a statement from the Justice Department, they are "confident that this resolution is the most just outcome." According to the government, the families of 110 crash victims either did not object to the agreement or supported ending the case before it went to trial.
Almost 100 families, meanwhile, are against the deal. At the hearing on September 3 in Texas, over a dozen relatives some from Europe and Africa spoke.
Catherine Berthet said, "Do not allow Boeing to buy its freedom," when traveling from France. Camille Geoffroy, her daughter, perished in the crash in Ethiopia.
On Wednesday, the first civil trial related to that collision began in a Chicago federal court. The amount Boeing must pay the family of one victim, Shikha Garg, a United Nations consultant who was one of numerous travelers to a U.N. environmental summit in Kenya, will be decided by the jury.
The software system that Boeing created for the 737 Max, which airlines started using in 2017, was at the heart of the criminal prosecution. Boeing marketed the aircraft as an upgraded 737 that wouldn't require much more pilot training. It was the company's response to a new, more fuel-efficient model from European competitor Airbus.
However, Boeing downplayed some of the major improvements made to the Max, most notably the adoption of an automatic flight control system intended to help account for the aircraft's larger engines. The majority of pilots were unaware of the technology, and Boeing did not address it in flight manuals.
Based on erroneous readings from a single sensor, that software continually pitched the plane's nose down in both of the fatal crashes, preventing pilots from Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air from regaining control. The aircraft were grounded globally for 20 months following the tragedy in Ethiopia.
Investigators discovered that prior to regulators establishing pilot training requirements for the Max and certifying the aircraft for flight, Boeing failed to notify important Federal Aviation Administration workers about software modifications.
