Boeing enters guilty plea deal regarding two fatal crashes of 737 Max planes
WORLDWIDE — THE AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING GIANT BOEING PLEADED GUILTY on Sunday to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the federal government over two fatal crashes of its 737 Max, the Washington Post has reported. As part of its plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, from a court filing made public, Boeing also agreed to pay a $487.2 million fine — the maximum allowed by law — and invest at least $455 million over the next three years to strengthen its compliance and safety programs. Two crashes occurred in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, after which the 737 Max was grounded. Under the agreement’s terms, Boeing will be placed on probation with supervision from the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The Justice Department will appoint an independent compliance monitor to ensure safety measures are followed by submitting annual reports to the government. The latest plea agreement stemmed from Boeing violating the terms of a 2021 deal; the company will face additional penalties if it violates any terms of the new agreement.
Other investigations of Boeing are underway, including an examination of the January 5 incident in which a door panel blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight takeoff. Two Boeing employees turned whistleblowers were later found dead under varied circumstances.
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