- The deal capped a 21-month investigation into the design and development of the 737 MAX following the deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019.
- The families of the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash of the Boeing 737 Max jet held a vigil in front of the US Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington, DC on Sept. 10, 2019.
- Boeing wants Congress to waive a December deadline imposed by the legislation for the FAA to certify the MAX 7 and MAX 10.
A US judge in Texas determined on Friday that the two Boeing (BA) 737 MAX disaster fatalities are legally regarded as “crime victims,” which will dictate the appropriate sanctions as reported by CNN.
Criminal prosecution
When the US Justice Department reached a January 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with the planemaker regarding two crashes that claimed 346 lives, the relatives of crash victims claimed in December that the US Justice Department had breached their legal rights.
The families demanded that US District Judge Reed O’Connor revoke Boeing’s immunity from prosecution, which was included in the $2.5 billion agreement, and order the planemaker to be publicly arraigned on felony charges. They claimed the government “lied and violated their rights through a secret process.”
According to O’Connor’s decision on Friday, 346 fewer people would have perished in the crashes if it weren’t for Boeing’s criminal conspiracy to cheat the Federal Aviation Administration.
The decision “is a significant success,” according to the families’ attorney Paul Cassell, and “sets the ground for a key hearing, where we will submit proposed remedies that would allow criminal prosecution to completely hold Boeing accountable.”
Boeing did not respond right away.
Settlement
Attorney General Merrick Garland met with some of the families after they filed a lawsuit alleging that the Crime Victims’ Rights Act had been broken, but he maintained the plea agreement, which included a $244 million fine, $1.77 billion in airline compensation, and a $500 million fund for crash victims.
Following the catastrophic disasters in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, a 21-month probe into the 737 MAX’s design and development came to an end with the settlement.
A safety mechanism known as MCAS, which was connected to two deadly crashes and created to assist stop the MAX from pitching up, was not fully disclosed by Boeing to the FAA. According to O’Connor, Ethiopian and Indonesian pilots would have “had training sufficient to respond to the MCAS activation that occurred on both aircrafts” if Boeing had not committed its crime.
Best-selling
The crashes, which have cost Boeing more than $20 billion in compensation, production expenses, and fines and caused the best-selling airliner to be grounded for 20 months, forced Congress to approve laws changing FAA aviation certification.
Boeing is requesting that Congress extend the FAA’s certification deadline for the MAX 7 and MAX 10 beyond the legislation’s December deadline. All aircraft after that date must have contemporary cockpit alerting systems, which the 737 aircraft do not.
In order to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it misled investors about the MAX, Boeing paid $200 million last month.
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Source: CNN
