Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge in connection with two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX jetliners. This plea deal, which disgraces the storied US planemaker as a felon, allows Boeing to avoid a potentially devastating trial. The crashes in question occurred in 2018 and 2019, leading to the deaths of 346 people. The Justice Department determined that Boeing violated an agreement that had previously protected it from prosecution for more than three years. The company was given the choice of entering a guilty plea and paying a fine as part of its sentence or facing a trial on a felony criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
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As part of the plea deal, Boeing will pay a fine of $243.6 million. The company will also be subject to three years of court-supervised probation, which means it could face additional penalties if it violates the terms of probation. The judge overseeing the case, who has criticized what he called "Boeing's egregious criminal conduct," could accept the plea and the sentence that prosecutors offered with it or he could reject the agreement, likely leading to new negotiations between the Justice Department and Boeing.
Lawyers for some of the relatives of those who died in the two crashes have said they will ask the judge to reject the agreement. Mark Lindquist, an attorney who says his firm has represented the families of dozens of people who died in the two 737 crashes, said in a statement that, "Victim families will be asking the judge to not accept the plea deal in its current form."
The Justice Department opened a new investigation into the matter, and the FAA has stepped up oversight of Boeing. The company's reputation has been tarnished by these incidents, and it remains to be seen how it will recover from this latest blow.