Boeing визнала брехню про катастрофи та заплатить штраф $244 млн — родини загиблих вимагають $25 млрд
Boeing agrees to plead guilty in a criminal case involving 737 MAX passenger jets. The manufacturer faces a fine of $244 million for misleading air safety regulators before two deadly plane crashes that killed 346 people.
According to one of the counts of conspiracy to defraud, the company may receive a second fine of $244 million and spend $455 million over the next three years to improve safety. Boeing also has to conduct independent monitoring for three years to confirm the improvements. The court has yet to sign the plea agreement.
The plea creates business problems for Boeing. Companies convicted of serious crimes may lose their jobs as defense contractors. Boeing is expected to seek relief from this consequence. According to federal data, last year the company received contracts with the Department of Defense worth $22.8 billion. Boeing and the Defense Department are in talks over the issue.
The plea agreement does not meet the demands of the families of the victims of the accidents. They asked federal prosecutors to demand a fine of about $25 billion, to pursue Boeing in court without concessions, and to bring other charges against the company and executives they believe are responsible for the crashes. Justice Department officials have told the families that they have faced various legal obstacles, including a statute of limitations and a lack of evidence to support alternative charges such as involuntary manslaughter.
«The families intend to argue that the plea agreement with Boeing unfairly makes concessions to Boeing that other criminal defendants would never have received and fails to hold Boeing accountable for the deaths of 346 people,» the lawyer said in a statement.
Lawyers for some of the victims’ families have also said they plan to pressure Judge Reed O’Connor, who is hearing the case, to reject the deal. In a separate document filed with the court, they cited O’Connor’s statement in a February 2023 decision:
«The Boeing crime can properly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history».
The company faces three years of court-supervised probation, during which it may face additional fines if it does not comply with the terms. The decision was made public in a statement by the Justice Department to a federal court in Fort Worth, Texas. Prosecutors asked the court to schedule a plea hearing for July.
In the fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, the pilots were unable to regain control after the noses of the planes were forced to descend due to repeated false activations of the flight control system. As part of the 2021 settlement, Boeing paid a fine of $243.6 million and $500 million in compensation to the families of the deceased passengers. At the time, Boeing avoided monitoring.
Boeing is still facing a civil lawsuit over the crashes. It has accepted responsibility for the deaths of passengers who died in the second 737 MAX crash, an Ethiopian Airlines flight. Boeing is facing lawsuits from families whose relatives died in the Lion Air crash in 2018, although Boeing has settled most of the claims.
The agreement announced on Sunday will not grant immunity to individual Boeing employees or executives, nor does it prevent the company from facing charges related to other incidents, including the Alaska Airlines doorstop accident in January 2024.