Relatives of the 346 people who died in two tragic crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max planes are angry at the U.S. Department of Justice for refusing to prosecute Boeing any further.
The DOJ struck a deal with the aerospace company in which Boeing agreed to plead guilty to just one felony charge of conspiracy to defraud regulators. The deal also includes a $244 million dollar fine, plus an obligation for Boeing to spend $455 million in new safety and oversight programs. Finally, the company will be on probation for three years.
The families of the dead say this is not good enough and they are asking the court to reject the plea bargain. But if the court does reject it, said the DOJ, the U.S. government will not testify or provide any evidence against Boeing, nor will they charge any individual employees at the company. The DOJ says it simply does not have the evidence to press further charges. Whether the DOJ will be allowed to avoid providing testimony is not clear.
For now, the plea deal is in front of U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor, who sits on the bench in Fort Worth, Texas. He is now considering whether to accept or reject the deal. If it is rejected, Boeing and the DOJ will be back to the negotiating drawing board.
For their part, the DOJ prosecutors say if the case goes to trial they will bring only the one felony charge the company has already admitted to, but will not bring manslaughter charges.
The crashes at issue happened in 2019 and 2019. The first plane to crash was a 737 Max owned by Lion Air. It crashed just off the coast of Indonesia minutes after takeoff, killing the 189 people on board. The second happened a year later when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after takeoff in Ethiopia, leading to the deaths of 157 passengers and crew.
Boeing has been plagued by technical and quality control issues for years that have tarnished the reputation of the once-respected airplane manufacturer. The problems with the 737 Max have been the most severe. First introduced in 1967, the 737 is the most popular and best selling airliner in aviation history. It has been modified, updated, and stretched several times over its more than 50 years of service.
The Max is the latest iteration, and the problems came from a software safety system called MCAS. This system was meant to prevent the plane from crashing by automatically lowering the plane’s nose to prevent it from “stalling.” An airplane stalls if it is flying too slowly to stay aloft. Stalled airplanes literally plunge straight to the ground.
Boeing failed to adequately train airlines and pilots about MCAS’ behavior. This led to pilots fighting the system, desperately trying to pull the nose up while the computer was pushing it down. This is what caused the two fatal crashes.
