US judge to hold hearing on families’ objections to Boeing plea deal

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said Friday he will hold a hearing Oct. 11 to consider objections from relatives of those killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes to the planemaker’s agreement to plead guilty to conspiracy to criminal fraud.

On July 24, the plane maker finalized an agreement to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration and pay up to $487 million after breaking a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.

Family members of some of the 346 people killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 say the fine is too low and have raised other objections to the plea deal. O’Connor will also review objections to the deal filed by Polish national airline LOT before deciding whether to accept the plea deal.

LOT had previously argued that it should have the same rights in this case as the victims’ families, and said it had suffered at least $250 million in damages related to the 14 737 MAX planes it owned and leased at the time. this model was grounded worldwide in March 2019 following the two accidents.

Boeing and the Justice Department did not immediately comment on O’Connor’s announcement. The Justice Department in August urged the Fort Worth, Texas, judge to accept the agreement, which it said “is a strong and meaningful resolution that holds Boeing accountable and serves the public interest.”

Family members cited O’Connor’s statement in a February 2023 ruling seeking tougher penalties: “Boeing’s crime can rightly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in the world.” history of the United States. »

The planemaker authorized potentially risky work at its factories and failed to ensure that key record-keeping on the plane was accurate or complete, the Justice Department said in July in explaining why it believed Boeing had violated the 2021 agreement.

The discovery follows an in-flight panel explosion in January on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX that exposed ongoing safety and quality problems at Boeing, just two days before the 2021 agreement protecting it expired prosecutions.

The plea agreement requires Boeing to spend $455 million to strengthen its compliance, safety and quality programs over three years of court-supervised probation. Boeing will also be subject to monitoring by an independent observer for three years.

O’Connor may also decide to require Boeing to pay compensation, which could include compensation to victims’ families beyond what many have already received as part of the settlements or as part of the $500 million dollars for loved ones under the 2021 deal.