2024-07-09 20:52:22
Grieving families are demanding over $24 billion.
Boeing will plead guilty in a case related to two fatal crashes of its 737 Max planes and pay a fine of $243 million, the US Department of Justice announced. In this way, the company will avoid a lawsuit.
However, the agreement became the cause of global outrage – “Boeing” and its employees will not answer to the court either as a company or individually for two fatal accidents with 737 Max planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, in which all 346 people died on board.
Instead, the company will pay a $243 million fine now and invest at least another $455 million in the safety of its planes over the next 3 years.
As part of the settlement, Boeing will also be placed on probation for the same period under federal supervision. The Department of Justice will appoint an independent monitor to ensure that safety measures are in place and are being followed. His task will be to present annual reports to the government. The company will face additional penalties if any of the conditions are violated. In addition, the board of directors will have to meet with the families of the victims of the two crashes.
The agreement it is not final
– must be approved by a judge to take effect.
The grieving families strongly condemned him and said they would pressure the judge to send the case to court. Already last month, their lawyer, Paul Cassel, sent a letter to prosecutors in which he demanded a fine of nearly $25 billion, which would be an acknowledgment of “the deadliest corporate crime in the history of the United States.”
The deal updates a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement reached in the final days of the Trump administration that allowed Boeing to avoid criminal charges for the two crashes. The company has already paid $500 million in compensation to the families of those killed and $243.6 million in fines. Now the American manufacturer has to pay another 243.6 million, which reaches the ceiling by law – $ 487.2 million.
The 2021 deal played the role of
3 years old probation
for the company. In May of this year The Justice Department said Boeing failed to “design, implement and enforce” an ethics and compliance program in its operations to prevent and detect violations of US fraud laws. This became necessary after the series of incidents with Boeing planes in 2024. Already at the beginning of the year, an emergency door of their plane broke off during a flight, which fortunately escaped without casualties. The case has once again called into question the safety and quality of American aircraft.
“Boeing” is one of the largest companies powering the US economy – it generates revenues of $ 78 billion annually. It is one of the two major manufacturers of commercial aircraft in the world. The company employs more than 170,000 people worldwide, including at least 150,000 in the United States. The expected admission of such a crime could prevent her from entering into future key government contracts with the Department of Defense, with NASA and others.
However, analysts have characterized the company’s economic contribution as too important to be held accountable – even for a fatal error. In this case, if the judge approves the settlement, Boeing will only pay a financial penalty for the two incidents that killed 346 people, after which it will continue to operate under strict monitoring.