Justice department to offer Boeing a plea deal related to Max crashes

The U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to offer Boeing a plea deal to resolve a criminal charge of fraud following two fatal crashes of the manufacturer’s 737 Max jet.

Federal prosecutors told attorneys representing those who lost loved ones in the crashes about the deal at a meeting on Sunday, according to two of those lawyers, Paul Cassell and Mark Lindquist. The plea deal would include a $244 million fine, a three-year probation and an independent monitor appointed to oversee the company’s progress on safety and quality improvements.

Cassell described the proposal as “another sweetheart deal” that would not hold Boeing accountable for the crashes that killed more than 300 people in 2018 and 2019. The victims’ families have long felt the Justice Department has not done enough in the wake of the crashes, and said a 2021 agreement that allowed Boeing to avoid criminal charges let the company off too easily.

“The memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this,” Cassell said Sunday.

Criminal charges related to the fatal Max crashes have been on hold for the last three and a half years. The 2021 agreement, called a deferred prosecution agreement, expired in January, opening a six-month time frame for the Justice Department to determine if Boeing had complied with the terms of the deal.

In May, the Justice Department determined that Boeing had violated the terms of its agreement. That meant federal prosecutors could once again pursue criminal charges. It’s been unclear since then how the Justice Department will move forward.

The Justice Department and Boeing declined to comment Sunday.

The company has until the end of the week to accept the deal, Lindquist said.

Families’ reaction

During a two-hour meeting Sunday with the Justice Department and roughly 100 victims’ families, Cassell said they objected to parts of the deal and shared concerns with federal prosecutors. He expected the Justice Department would consider that feedback, but instead federal prosecutors told the group Sunday that they were prepared to offer the deal to Boeing as they had presented it.

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