WASHINGTON – The US Department of Justice (DoJ) today told Boeing it violated a 2021 agreement that protected it from criminal charges tied to two fatal 737 Max crashes, reported UPI.
US federal prosecutors said in a court filing in Texas that the DoJ was deciding how it would proceed in this matter, but the violation opened Boeing up to potential US prosecution.
Boeing has denied violating the agreement.
“We believe that we have honoured the terms of that agreement, and look forward to the opportunity to respond to the department on this issue,” Boeing said.
In 2021, Boeing entered a deferred prosecution agreement after two 737 Max plane crashes that killed a total of 346 people in 2018 and 2019.
The company agreed to pay US$2.5 billion (RM11.7 billion) to settle a conspiracy charge with the DoJ and promised to improve its safety and compliance protocols.
The DoJ at the time said Boeing admitted that two of its Max technical pilots deceived the Federal Aviation Administration about the capabilities of the planes’ flight control systems, which were later implicated in both crashes.
According to today’s filing, Boeing broke the agreement by failing to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics programme to prevent and detect violations of US fraud laws throughout its operations.
The notification follows recent scrutiny into the aircraft manufacturer, which began in January when a door plug blew off of an Alaska Airlines plane shortly after take-off.
A preliminary investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board found the bolts to secure the door plug were not properly in place.
Families of the victims of the 2018-2019 crashes and their lawyers met with the Justice Department last month to ask the Biden administration to end the 2021 agreement in light of the Alaska Airlines fiasco.
“This is a positive first step, and for the families, a long time coming”, said attorney Paul Cassell in response to the DoJ findings.
“But we need to see further action from the DoJ to hold Boeing accountable and plan to use our meeting on May 31 to explain in more detail what we believe would be a satisfactory remedy to Boeing’s ongoing criminal conduct,” he added. – May 15, 2024