Boeing accepts plea deal in deadly crashes

The U.S. Justice Department on Sunday said that the airplane manufacturer had agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge connected to two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia involving 737 Max jets that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. The deal would force Boeing to pay a total fine of $487 million, half of which prosecutors say has already been paid under a 2021 settlement with the DOJ. The deal also would require the company to invest at least $455 million into compliance and safety programs and to be observed by an independent monitor for three years. A federal judge must approve the deal and will set a hearing for Boeing to enter its guilty plea formally.

What prompted the deal? The DOJ in May said that Boeing violated the 2021 agreement by failing to set up and enforce a compliance and ethics program. The earlier deal required the company to increase efforts to detect and prevent potential violations of U.S. fraud laws.

How have the families of the victims responded? Paul G. Cassell, a lawyer for some of the families of the crash victims, filed an objection to the agreement. He said the families had hoped for stiffer consequences for the company and that the deal was not in the public interest.