Boeing sued over two 737 MAX crashes

DALLAS – A federal judge ordered the Boeing Co. to be sued. on felony charges related to the crash of two 737 MAX aircraft, threatening to terminate an agreement made by Boeing to avoid prosecution.

The Texas judge’s decision came after relatives of some of the victims said the government violated their rights by reaching a settlement with Boeing without prior notice to the families.

US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ordered Boeing to send a representative to a Fort Worth courtroom on Jan. 26 to file charges.

A Boeing spokesman said the company had no comment. The Justice Department, which did not object to the public prosecution but fought against the reopening of the settlement agreement, also declined to comment.

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The judge’s decision is narrow and does not guarantee that Boeing will be held accountable. This, however, remains the goal of lawyers for relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the accidents.

One of those lawyers, Paul Cassel, said the Justice Department could uphold the settlement even after the arraignment and a hearing at which the surviving passengers must testify.

“But we think it was such a rotten deal that… (the DOJ) can and should, after hearing the views of the victims, re-cut the deal,” Cassell said. “They must be held accountable.”

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A judge has yet to rule on a separate motion by the families’ lawyers to waive Boeing’s immunity from prosecution.

Families accuse the government of making a secret deal with Boeing without informing them of the negotiations.

Last year, O’Connor ruled that relatives were victims of crime under federal law and should have been consulted before the Justice Department agreed to a deal that saw Boeing pay $2.5 billion to avoid criminal prosecution. about fraud with the federal regulators that approved the 737 Max. .

Much of the money from the settlement went to airlines, which were unable to operate their Max aircraft for almost two years after aircraft were grounded around the world. Boeing agreed to pay a $243.6 million fine and set up a $500 million fund to compensate the families of the victims.

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Max’s first passenger flight took place in May 2017. The disasters occurred in October 2018 in Indonesia and less than five months later in Ethiopia.

Both planes have an automated flight control system that Boeing did not initially tell the airlines about, and the pilots lowered their nose due to erroneous readings from a single sensor on the fuselage. The Federal Aviation Administration has allowed Max jet aircraft to resume flights in late 2020 after Boeing changed the flight system.

The plane crashes led to a congressional investigation that was heavily criticized by both Boeing and the FAA. Congress has made changes to how the FAA will certify aircraft in the future.

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The only criminal charges stemming from the Max saga were against a former Boeing test pilot who was accused of defrauding the FAA. Last year, a jury in Fort Worth found him not guilty.