Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud charges over plane crashes

Boeing, an American aerospace company, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal fraud conspiracy charges stemming from two fatal crashes involving its 737 Max planes that killed 346 passengers and crew members in 2018 and 2019.

The decision by the company came after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) ruled that the company violated a deal meant to reform amidst safety concerns.

The plane maker had also agreed to pay a criminal fine of $243.6m (£190m), the DoJ said on Monday. According to a BBC report, the settlement must now be approved by a US judge.

However, some families of the victims of the ill-fated aircraft five years ago have criticised the decision, describing it as a “sweetheart deal” that would allow Boeing to avoid full responsibility for the fatalities recorded during the crashes.

Crisis

Boeing has faced criticism over its safety record since the incident of the two near-identical crashes involving 737 Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019.

In late October 2018, a Boeing 737 Max plane operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 189 people on board.

A few months later, in 2019, another Boeing 737 Max plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed, killing all 157 passengers and crew members onboard. A Nigerian professor, Pius Adesanmi, was among the victims of the ill-fated plane.

Mr Adesanmi, who held Nigerian and Canadian citizenship, was a columnist and editorial board member at PREMIUM TIMES and other Nigerian media platforms.

These incidents led to the global grounding of the plane for over a year.

In 2021, it was reported that prosecutors charged Boeing with one count of conspiracy to defraud regulators, alleging it had deceived the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about its MCAS flight control system, which was implicated in both crashes.

That year, Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to resolve the matter, including a $243 million criminal penalty and $500 million to a victims’ fund.

The deal was said to have outraged family members, who alleged that they were not consulted on the terms and have called for the company to stand trial.

It was eventually agreed that Boeing would not be prosecuted if the company paid a penalty and completed three years of increased monitoring and reporting.

However, the pressure on Boeing intensified after an unused door blew out of a Boeing 737 Max Alaska Airlines in January shortly after take-off, forcing the plane to land abruptly. Although no fatalities were recorded, it intensified scrutiny over how much progress Boeing had made in improving its safety and quality record.

Amid a deepening crisis over Boeing’s safety record, its Chief Executive, Dave Calhoun, was forced to announce his resignation by the end of this year, while Boeing also said that the head of its commercial airline division will retire immediately and its chairman will not stand for re-election.

In May, the DoJ said it found Boeing had violated the terms of the agreement, opening up the possibility of prosecution.

Comments

“This sweetheart deal fails to recognise that because of Boeing’s conspiracy, 346 people died,” Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing some families of people killed on the 2018 and 2019 flights, was quoted as saying.

“Through crafty lawyering between Boeing and DoJ, the deadly consequences of Boeing’s crime are being hidden.

” Reject this inappropriate plea and simply set the matter for a public trial so that all the facts surrounding the case will be aired in a fair and open forum before a jury,” Mr Cassell said.

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He also urged the DoJ in June to fine Boeing more than $24 billion.

In his reaction, Ed Pierson, executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety and a former senior manager at Boeing, described the plea as “seriously disappointing” and “a terrible deal for justice”.

“Instead of holding individuals accountable, they’re just basically giving them another get out of jail free card,” he said.