Boeing agrees to $2.5 billion settlement to resolve U.S. criminal probe into 737 MAX crashes

By David Shepardson and Eric M. Johnson

 

FILE PHOTO: The Boeing logo is displayed on a screen, at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., August 7, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) -Boeing Co will pay over $2.5 billion to resolve the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into two deadly 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people, the Justice Department said, but will not be forced to plead guilty to criminal charges.

 

The Justice Department said the settlement includes a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6 million, compensation payments to Boeing’s 737 MAX airline customers of $1.77 billion, and the establishment of a $500 million crash-victim beneficiaries fund to compensate the heirs, relatives, and legal beneficiaries of the passengers.

 

The crashes led to the plane's grounding for 20 months in March 2019 that was only lifted in November after Boeing made significant safety upgrades.

 

Boeing was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. The largest U.S. airplane manufacturer faces a three-year deferred prosecution agreement after which the charge will be dismissed if the company complies with the agreement.

 

"The tragic crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 exposed fraudulent and deceptive conduct by employees of one of the world’s leading commercial airplane manufacturers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General David P. Burns. "Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception."

 

Boeing admitted in court documents that two of its 737 MAX Flight Technical Pilots deceived the Federal Aviation Administration about a key safety system tied to both fatal crashes called MCAS.

 

Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun said in a statement the agreement "appropriately acknowledges how we fell short of our values and expectations."

 

The airline payment fund will include prior payments already made by the Boeing to airlines.

 

(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-08

 

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Wonder if Boeing will end up as just another US socialist aerospace company? Unable to compete in the commercial market with airbus and/or  the Japanese and Chinese planes which are coming. Really they killed themselves because of greed. They will still be a company thanks to US taxpayers money, just like;

 

Lockheed Martin

General Dynamics
Nothrop Grumman

 

The socialist private aerospace companies of america.

 

38 minutes ago, webfact said:

but will not be forced to plead guilty to criminal charges.

Why not? What they did was criminal, people died because of greed/ lying/ money.

Sounds like a lot of money, but just a cost of doing business to Boeing.  Unless the executives who commit the crimes face prosecution and imprisonment nothing will change at the company.  We've seen that over and over again in other sectors.

2 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Sounds like a lot of money, but just a cost of doing business to Boeing. 

 

It's probably about a week worth of stock buybacks.

Will they use the stimulus money for this?

I note that the US Government gets 10% of that money and a mere 20% of it goes to the victims heirs.

 

It's a disgrace.

3 hours ago, stevenl said:

Will they use the stimulus money for this?

 

Might be easier to just add on extra billions to the cost of Apaches and parts when they send in the next bill to the Pentagon.

54 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

Might be easier to just add on extra billions to the cost of Apaches and parts when they send in the next bill to the Pentagon.

Or their failed space program Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner

A pittance.  Boeing should be broken up and those responsible jailed for manslaughter. As I have said elsewhere, I have flown Boeings for years, but you wouldn't get me on one of those aircraft, as passenger, or pilot and I am not alone in that feeling among aviation people. 

Edited January 8, 20215 yr by Pilotman

15 hours ago, Pilotman said:

A pittance.  Boeing should be broken up and those responsible jailed for manslaughter. As I have said elsewhere, I have flown Boeings for years, but you wouldn't get me on one of those aircraft, as passenger, or pilot and I am not alone in that feeling among aviation people. 

I agree with your sentiments completely, those responsible should be tried and jailed.

when you let big companies do their own safety, you end up with this ... but people still put faith in BIG PHARMA

1 minute ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

when you let big companies do their own safety, you end up with this ... but people still put faith in BIG PHARMA

Boeing vaxxes itself, with bigmoney 

For those in the know. What would be the effect of this aircraft (the Boeing 737 max) being grounded permanently? It seems that many are convinced that it is an inherently unsafe aircraft, certainly, as a layman whose only flying experience was a bit of gliding donkeys years ago I would be concerned that its apparent inherent instability has been overcome with a software rewrite!

 

If grounded presumably Boeing would have to buy back all the aircraft it sold, and  hope to be able to sell a replacement type. Would it finish them off? Are they "too big to fail"?

17 minutes ago, herfiehandbag said:

For those in the know. What would be the effect of this aircraft (the Boeing 737 max) being grounded permanently? It seems that many are convinced that it is an inherently unsafe aircraft, certainly, as a layman whose only flying experience was a bit of gliding donkeys years ago I would be concerned that its apparent inherent instability has been overcome with a software rewrite!

 

If grounded presumably Boeing would have to buy back all the aircraft it sold, and  hope to be able to sell a replacement type. Would it finish them off? Are they "too big to fail"?

 

It doesn't sound like the 737 Max will be grounded at all.  On the contrary.

 

"The crashes led to the plane's grounding for 20 months in March 2019 that was only lifted in November after Boeing made significant safety upgrades."

 

I bet that Boeing regrets that it did not teach the pilots the most important factor in their training. This system that was not working correctly, could have been turn off and the pilots could have manually flown the airliners to the closest airport and landed.  Not having dual systems as well, did not help the situation.  This jet will be one of the safest to fly in now.  New technology should never be trusted completely until it has been in service and shown to be reliable. That was a mistake that the pilots made.

Geezer

How to pay your way out of killing people because of corporate greed, great system (not)

Boeing have been down this route before , especially the cargo doors locking pin fiasco on the 747, it's certainly not good enough to build these planes then shrug off defects, now they have a problem with the 787 fuselage.   

One just crashed in Indonesia....breaking news....

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/09/asia/indonesia-sriwijaya-air-plane-intl/index.html

16 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

One just crashed in Indonesia....breaking news....

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/09/asia/indonesia-sriwijaya-air-plane-intl/index.html

No, it wasn't a MAX, it was a 26 year old plane, a 737, but not the MAX.

 

4 minutes ago, Credo said:

No, it wasn't a MAX, it was a 26 year old plane, a 737, but not the MAX.

 

WHEW!!!!  Thanks for that!  I was worried....

Indonesia Plane Crash: Boeing Passenger Jet Plunges Into Java Sea

 

A Boeing Co. passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday, Indonesian authorities said.

 

The Sriwijaya Air jet lost contact with air-traffic controllers and disappeared from radar minutes after taking off from the country’s capital, Jakarta, transport ministry officials said.

 

<Snip>

 

The aircraft involved was a 26-year-old Boeing 737-500, according to Theodora Erika, a spokeswoman for Sriwijaya Air, which is an Indonesian carrier.