Documents submitted by the US Department of Justice to a federal court in Texas on the 23rd show that the Department has reached a non-prosecution agreement with Boeing regarding the latter's conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes.
According to the agreement, Boeing will avoid conviction and does not have to attend a trial that was originally scheduled for next month.
The document states that Boeing will "admit to conspiring to obstruct and impede" federal regulators, and the Department of Justice will request the judge to dismiss the case, while retaining the right to refile charges.
Under the agreement, Boeing agrees to pay over $1.1 billion (approximately 4.655 billion ringgit) in fines and compensation, including an additional $243.6 million in criminal fines, $444.5 million to a crash victim fund, and $445 million to strengthen its safety and compliance programs.
The Department of Justice stated that the agreement is "a fair and public interest solution" that will ensure further accountability and immediately provide substantial benefits to affected families while avoiding the risks of litigation uncertainties.
In October 2018 and March 2019, flights of Indonesia's Lion Air and Ethiopia Airlines suffered crashes, totaling 346 fatalities, and the crashed aircraft were both Boeing 737 MAX 8 models. In January 2021, the US Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Boeing and reached a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with them. Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion in fines and compensation and promised to fully cooperate in implementing compliance and improvement programs as required.
This deferred prosecution agreement was set to expire on January 7, 2024, but in January 2024, just two days before the agreement's expiration, a door latch incident occurred on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft during flight. In May of the same year, the US Department of Justice determined that Boeing had failed to make improvements to detect and prevent violations of anti-fraud regulations, breaching the deferred prosecution agreement reached in 2021.
In July, Boeing accepted a plea agreement proposed by the Department of Justice, admitting to conspiring to defraud the US Federal Aviation Administration in the two 737 MAX crashes. Some families of the victims of the crashes opposed the plea agreement through their lawyers, arguing that the punishment for Boeing was too lenient, and the plea agreement was subsequently rejected by the court.