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Families who lost loved beings in two accidents at Boeing 737 Max Jetliners may have their last chance to demand that the company in front of criminal prosecution on Wednesday. It is then that a federal judge in Texas will listen to arguments about a motion from the United States government to dismiss a serious crime against Boeing.
American prosecutors accused Boeing of conspiracy to commit fraud in relation to accidents that killed 346 people off the coast of Indonesia and Ethiopia. Federal prosecutors alleged Boeing deceived government regulators on a flight control system that was later involved in fatal flights, which took place with less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019.
Boeing decided to declare himself guilty instead of going to trial, but the main judge of the United States district, Reed O’Connor, rejected the guilt of the aircraft manufacturer in December. O’Connor, who will also consider allowing prosecutors to dismiss the position of conspiracy, opposed the policies of diversity, equity and inclusion that potentially influence the selection of an independent monitor to supervise the company’s promised reforms.
The lawyers representing relatives of some of the passengers who died encouraged O’Connor’s decision, hoping to promote their goal of seeing the former Boeing executives prosecuted during a public trial and a more severe financial punishment for the company. Instead, the delay worked in favor of Boeing.
The judge’s refusal to accept the agreement meant that the company was free to challenge the justification of the Department of Justice for charging Boeing as a corporation. It also meant that prosecutors would have to ensure a new agreement for a statement of guilt.
The Government and Boeing spent six months renegotiating its plea agreement. During that time, President Donald Trump returned to office and ordered the end of the diversity initiatives that gave O’Connor a pause.
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By the time the Criminal Fraud section of the Department of Justice informed the judge at the end of May, the position and the statement were out of the table. A non -disgraceing agreement in both parties said the government would dismiss the position in exchange for Boeing to pay or invest another $ 1.1 billion in fines, compensation for the families of accident victims and internal security and quality measures.
The Department of Justice said that he offered to Boeing those terms in the light of the “significant changes” that Boeing did to his quality control and anti -fraud programs since he entered the July 2024 guilt agreement.
The department also said that he thought that persuading a jury to punish the company with a criminal sentence would be risky, while the reviewed agreement ensures “significant responsibility, offers substantial and immediate public benefits, and provides the purpose of a difficult and complex case whose result would be uncertain.”
Judge O’Connor has invited some of the families to go to the Court on Wednesday. One of the people to talk about is Catherine Berthet, whose daughter, Camille Geoffrey, died at age 28 when a 737 Max crashed shortly after the take -off of the Addis Abeba Bale of Ethiopia’s International Airport.
Berthet, who lives in France, is part of a group of some 30 families who want the judge to deny the government’s application and designate a special prosecutor to take care of the case.
“While it is not surprising that Boeing is trying to buy everyone, the fact that the Department of Justice, which had a statement of guilt in his last year, has now decided not to process Boeing, regardless of the judge’s decision, is a denial of justice, a total contempt for victims and, above all, a disagreement for the judge,” he said in a statement.
The Government says that the judge cannot deny his request
The lawyers of the Department of Justice keep families of 110 victims of accidents that support a resolution prior to the trial or do not oppose the non -prison agreement. Department’s lawyers also dispute if O’Connor has authority to deny the motion without finding prosecutors to act in bad faith instead of public interest.
While federal judges generally differentiate the discretion of prosecutors in such situations, court approval is not automatic.
In the case of Boeing, the Department of Justice has asked to preserve the option to return to conspiracy if the company does not retain its end of the non -presence agreement in the next two years.
Boeing reached an agreement in 2021 that protected him from criminal prosecution, but the Department of Justice determined last year that the company had violated the agreement and revived the position.
Defective sensor readings preceded
The case revolves around a new software system that Boeing developed for Max. In the 2018 and 2019 locks, the software launched the plane’s nose repeatedly based on defective readings of a single sensor, and the pilots who then flew new airplanes for Lion Air and the Ethiopian airlines could not recover control.
The inspector General of the Department of Transportation discovered that Boeing did not inform the key staff of the Federal Aviation Administration on the changes made to the MCAS software before the regulators established the training requirements of pilots for the MAX and certified the plane for the flight.
Acting on incomplete information, FAA approved the minimum computer -based training for Boeing 737 pilots, avoiding the need for flight simulators that would have made airlines more expensive for airlines to adopt the latest version of the Jetliner.
The airlines began flying the maximum in 2017. After the Ethiopia accident, the airplanes were based around the world for 20 months, while the company redesigned the software.
In the last weeks of Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice accused Boeing of conspiring to disappoint the United States government, but agreed to defer the prosecution and leave the position after three years if the company paid a $ 2.5 agreement and strengthened its ethics and legal compliance programs.
The 2021 liquidation agreement was about to expire when a panel that covers an unused emergency exit exploded a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon at the beginning of last year. No one was seriously injured, but the potential disaster put Boeing’s security history under renewed scrutiny.
A former Boeing test pilot is still the only individual accused of a crime in relation to accidents. In March 2022, a federal jury acquitted him to deceive FAA about the amount of training that pilots would need to fly to the maximum.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
