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Boeing was fined $ 2.5 billion by the US Department of Justice after being charged with fraud and conspiracy in connection with two fatal accidents involving its 737 Max plane.
Boeing employees chose “the path of profit over candor by hiding material information” from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the top US airline regulator David Burns, the attorney general wrote in a statement. Acting Deputy of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
Burns said the company had also engaged “in an effort to cover up their deception.”
The Max was grounded around the world in March 2019 after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. A March 2020 Congressional investigation concluded that Boeing promoted a “culture of stealth” and was “extremely inefficient” in its oversight of Max development. In a heated congressional hearing in October 2019, Senator Richard Blumenthal accused Boeing of selling “flying coffins” as a result of his decision to hide problems with the planes from pilots.
“The tragic accidents of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 revealed the fraudulent and deceptive conduct of employees of one of the world’s leading commercial aircraft manufacturers,” Burns said.
Boeing admitted that two of its technical pilots misled regulators about the safety of Max’s MCAS crash prevention software, implicated in both fatal accidents. In both cases, the planes crashed shortly after takeoff when their pilots were unable to regain control of the planes after they plummeted.
The settlement includes $ 2.2 billion in compensation to the families of the people who died in Max’s two accidents and a $ 243 million fine.
In a statement, Boeing once again blamed its former employees.
The “agreement is based on the conduct of two former Boeing employees and their willful failure to inform the FAA Aircraft Assessment Group (AEG), the group within the FAA responsible for making pilot training determinations, about changes in the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS), ”the company said.
David Calhoun, president and CEO of Boeing, said: “I firmly believe that signing this resolution is the right thing to do for us, a step that appropriately recognizes how we fail to meet our values and expectations.
“This resolution is a serious reminder to all of us of how critical our obligation of transparency to regulators is and the consequences our company may face if any of us fail to meet those expectations.”
Boeing has now addressed concerns about the Max and the plane returned to service in the United States in December.
Attorneys for the families lost in the Ethiopian Airlines accident dismissed the settlement and said they would continue their litigation against Boeing.
“The allegations in the deferred prosecution agreement are just the tip of the iceberg of Boeing’s wrongdoing: a corporation that pays billions of dollars to avoid criminal liability while hindering and fighting families in court. This settlement, including the ‘Accident Victim Beneficiary Fund,’ is unrelated to the pending civil litigation against Boeing, which we plan to process in its entirety to ensure families receive the justice they deserve, “said Clifford Law Offices in a release.
They said the 737 MAX should not have been put back into service “until all the aircraft’s deficiencies are addressed and it has undergone transparent and independent safety reviews, which to date has not yet happened.”
