Boeing nears deal to avoid guilty plea, US prosecution in 737 Max crashes case
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Family members of victims of an Ethiopian Airlines crash involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane at a Senate hearing on April 2 in Washington.
PHOTO: AFP
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NEW YORK/WASHINGTON – Boeing has reached a tentative non-prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in a fraud case stemming from two fatal 737 Max plane crashes that killed 346 people, people familiar with the matter said.
The agreement would forestall a June 23 trial date that the planemaker faces on a charge that it misled US regulators about a crucial flight control system on the 737 Max, its strongest-selling jet.
The agreement would allow Boeing to avoid being branded a convicted felon but would be a blow to families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take the company to trial.
A felony conviction could have threatened Boeing’s ability to secure lucrative government contracts with the likes of the US Defence Department and US space agency Nasa, although it could have sought waivers.
Boeing had no immediate comment, while the DOJ declined to comment.
Boeing in July had agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the two fatal 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia
But Boeing no longer agreed to plead guilty in the case, prosecutors told family members of crash victims during a meeting on May 16, the sources said. The company’s position changed after a judge rejected a previous plea agreement in December, prosecutors told the family members.
DOJ officials are still weighing whether to proceed with a non-prosecution agreement or take Boeing to trial, one of them said during the meeting. No final decision has been made, and Boeing and DOJ officials have not yet exchanged papers to negotiate final details of any non-prosecution agreement, the official told family members.
Nevertheless, Boeing has become emboldened to litigate the case since a judge tossed the previous plea deal and the DOJ has concluded there is “meaningful downside risk” to proceeding with a trial, a prosecutor said during the May 16 meeting.
US District Judge Reed O’Connor’s decision to reject Boeing’s previous plea deal prolonged the case into the Trump administration, which has overhauled the DOJ. Boeing agreed to the initial plea deal during the final months of the Biden administration.
Mr Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, said in a statement that the government was intent on dropping the prosecution, saying “they conveyed their preconceived idea that Boeing should be allowed to escape any real consequences for its deadly lies”.
Another lawyer representing family members who attended the meeting, Ms Erin Applebaum, said the DOJ’s “scripted presentation made it clear that the outcome has already been decided”.
The DOJ said Boeing would be asked to pay an additional US$444.5 million into a crash victims’ fund that would be split evenly per crash victim, lawyers for the families said, on top of US$500 million Boeing paid in 2021.
Ms Nadia Milleron, who lost her daughter in one of the Boeing plane crashes in 2019, told Reuters that she questioned how the DOJ, and Attorney-General Pam Bondi, could justify cutting a deal with a repeat offender.
The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on display at the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, Britain.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In December, Judge O’Connor in Texas rejected Boeing’s previous plea agreement in the case, faulting a diversity and inclusion provision in the deal related to the selection of an independent monitor. He had also said in 2023 that “Boeing’s crime may properly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in US history”.
Boeing has faced enhanced scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since January 2024, when a new Max 9 missing four key bolts suffered a mid-air emergency over losing a door plug. The FAA has capped production at 38 planes a month.
On May 14, Boeing chief executive officer Kelly Ortberg appeared with US President Donald Trump in Qatar to announce that the planemaker had landed its biggest deal for wide-body aeroplanes when state carrier Qatar Airways placed firm orders for 160 jetliners
The current discussions stem from a series of DOJ decisions spanning presidential administrations.
DOJ officials in 2024 found that Boeing had violated a 2021 agreement, reached during the first Trump administration’s final days, that had shielded the planemaker from prosecution.
That conclusion followed the January 2024 in-flight emergency during an Alaska Airlines flight. As a result, DOJ officials decided to reopen the older fatal crashes case and negotiate a plea agreement with Boeing. REUTERS
