The Department of Justice has motioned to dismiss a criminal lawsuit against Boeing over two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019.
The criminal lawsuit – filed by the 34 families who lost loved ones in 2019’s Ethiopian Airlines crash – was scheduled to go to trial on June 23 by Presiding U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor after Boeing backed out of a guilty plea agreement in March.
Last week, reports emerged that Boeing was nearing a new plea deal with the Department of Justice to avoid prosecution.
The DOJ confirmed these reports on Thursday by filing a motion to dismiss the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. According to the motion, Boeing will fulfill several obligations to secure accountability and provide public benefits in exchange for the dismissal of charges.
Boeing’s Obligations Under the Agreement
Per the agreement, Boeing has agreed to the following:
- Pay a criminal monetary penalty of $487.2 million, which is the statutory maximum fine.
- Contribute $444.5 million to a Crash-Victim Beneficiaries fund to compensate the victims’ families.
- Invest $455 million to enhance its compliance, safety, and quality programs.
- Implement and maintain an improved anti-fraud compliance and ethics program, subject to reporting by an independent compliance consultant to the government.
- Boeing’s Board of Directors will meet with the families of the crash victims to discuss the impact and the company’s current programs.
- Maintain cooperation with any investigations conducted by the Department of Justice or other authorities.
“Many Family members want the Government to go to trial regardless of the litigation risks,” the motion stated. “But at the core of their objection to the [non prosecution agreement], and the proposed plea agreement before that, is the presumption that the Government would present a more expansive case at trial (or at sentencing post-trial) that reveals a criminal conspiracy that reached to the highest levels of the Company, and proves that Boeing is criminally responsible for the deaths of their loved ones.”
“But the reality presented by the evidence and the law is that the Government could not, consistent with Department policy and its ethical and professional obligations, put on such a case,” the motion continued. “The testimony and evidence the Government can seek to introduce against Boeing would track the Statement of Facts accompanying the Agreement and overlap to a substantial degree with the testimony and evidence the Government introduced in the trial of Boeing’s former Chief Technical Pilot.”
Attorney Erin Applebaum, who represents the families of victims who were aboard 2019’s Ethiopian crash, stated last week that the DOJ was “prepared to let the company walk away, again, with no more than a financial penalty.”
“This isn’t justice. It’s a backroom deal dressed up as a legal proceeding, and it sends a dangerous message: in America, the rich and powerful can buy their way out of accountability,” she told AirlineGeeks in an emailed statement last Friday.
The motion requested that the lawsuit be dismissed and Boeing’s pretrial deadlines be terminated. Judge O’Connor has yet to make a ruling on the motion.
