Aircraft maker Boeing avoids criminal charges over two fatal 737 Max crashes in Indonesia (2018) and Ethiopia (2019) in which 346 people died. A federal judge in Texas agreed this Thursday to dismiss the conspiracy charge against Boeing. The decision facilitates the out-of-court settlement in which the Arlington, Virginia-based company agrees to pay $1.1 billion in compensation to the families of the victims and pending fines, as well as to strengthen internal security measures on the planes.
The court ruling also represents an important lifeline for the American aviation giant, which is going through a difficult situation with order cancellations and delays in the delivery of its devices. In its latest quarterly results, the company reported losses of $5 billion due to the delay of the 777X program.
District Judge Reed O’Connor approved the federal government’s request to dismiss the case against Boeing as part of an out-of-court settlement. The court’s decision comes five months after Donald Trump’s federal government reached a settlement with the company that allowed it to avoid prosecution for misleading U.S. regulators about alleged 737 Max irregularities before crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
In his writing, published on Thursday, the judge argues that the new agreement “does not guarantee the responsibility necessary to guarantee the safety of passengers”. However, O’Connor admits he did not have the authority to reject the deal because prosecutors did not act in bad faith in executing it, according to the AP. “Lack of judgment cannot be compensated for by excessive judicial intervention,” O’Connor said reluctantly. “The court recognizes that it does not have the authority to deny the permit because it disagrees with the government that dismissing the criminal charge in this case is in the public interest,” he added.
The ruling is a relief for Boeing, whose reputation was severely damaged after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving the same model plane, the 737 Max. After the serious crashes, prosecutors determined that Boeing committed fraud against the United States by inducing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to certify the plane by hiding defects in elements of a key flight control system. But the Justice Department and Boeing reached a settlement under which the criminal charges were dropped in exchange for a $1 million fine. The company placed him on probation, which required him to maintain impeccable conduct, without any incidents, for three years.
But early last year, two days before the end of the period of close monitoring, the American giant suffered another accident with a 737 Max fresh from the factory. In this case there were no victims. But the ruling brought back cases from the past. During Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, the door cap on a new 737 Max came off. Subsequent investigations uncovered control deficiencies at Boeing factories. This accident which occurred during the flight worsened the company’s crisis and caused a management restructuring.
The ruling issued this Thursday comes after the victims’ relatives asked Judge O’Connor to reject the out-of-court settlement, to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the cases and to seek tougher sanctions for the company and its executives.
Boeing’s long legal battle over a conspiracy charge over the crashes of the Indonesian airline in October 2018 and the Ethiopian airliner in March 2019, linked to a faulty flight control system, now comes to an end.
The court case and investigations have dragged on for years. There have been several unexpected turns since the Justice Department first accused the US aerospace company in January 2021 of defrauding the US government, including a failed deal that would have forced Boeing to plead guilty, Bloomberg explains.
