U.S. plans to seek guilty plea from Boeing over fatal 737 Max crashes

U.S.
prosecutors
plan
to
seek
a
guilty
plea
from


Boeing
over
a
charge
tied
to
two
fatal
crashes
of
737
Max
planes,
attorneys
for
the
victims’
family
members
said
Sunday,
blasting
a
potential
agreement
as
a
“sweetheart
deal.”

Justice
Department
attorneys
and
victims’
family
members
and
their
lawyers
spoke
for
about
two
hours
on
Sunday,
discussing
the
plan,
lawyers
said.

Boeing
declined
to
comment,
and
it
wasn’t
immediately
clear
if
it
would
accept
a
plea
deal.
A
guilty
plea
could
complicate
its
ability
to
get
government
contracts.
Boeing
is
a
major
defense
contractor.

The
Justice
Department
didn’t
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.

The
DOJ
said
in
May
that
it
was
reviewing
whether
Boeing
violated
a
2021
settlement
that
protected
the
company
from
federal
charges
tied
to
the
2018
and
2019
crashes
of
its
best-selling
737
Max
planes,
which
killed
all
346
people
on
the
two
flights.
Under
that
agreement,
Boeing
said
it
would
pay
$2.5
billion.

The
DOJ
revisited
the

agreement
after
a
door
panel

blew
out
of
a
new
737
Max
9
midair
during
an


Alaska
Airlines
flight
in
January,
sparking
a
new
safety
and
quality
control
crisis
for
one
of
the
world’s
two
suppliers
of
large
commercial
airplanes.
The
so-called
deferred
prosecution
agreement
was
set
to
expire
days
before
the
door
panel
blew
out.

Boeing
admitted
in
2021
that
two
of
its
pilots
defrauded
the
Federal
Aviation
Administration
by
concealing
its
addition
of
a
new
flight-control
system
to
the
planes
before
they
were
flown
commercially.
That
system
was
later
implicated
in
the
two
crashes.

The
plea
deal
would
require
Boeing
to
pay
an
additional
fine
of
about
$247
million
and
call
for
the
installation
of
an
outside
monitor
on
Boeing,
according
to Paul
Cassell,
one
of
the
lawyers.
Cassell
called
the
new
deal
a
“slap
on
the
wrist.”