In the United States, Boeing has avoided a criminal trial. The aircraft manufacturer, implicated in two 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, which killed a total of 346 people, has reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice. Boeing pleads guilty: it admits to having sought to deceive the US air transport regulatory agency.
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By pleading guilty, Boeing acknowledges having flouted a previous agreement dating from 2021. This required the American manufacturer to improve its compliance and ethics program on several of its aircraft, including the 737 MAX 8, involved in two crashes in Ethiopia in 2019 and in Indonesia in 2018, both of which caused 346 deaths.
This Monday, July 8, Boeing decided to reach an agreement with the American Department of Justice (DoJ). For its failures, the aircraft manufacturer agrees to pay a fine of 243 million dollars, and will have to invest nearly twice as much ($455 million) in compliance and security programs.
Boeing thus avoids itself an embarrassing trial and therefore a conviction, but the group could nevertheless be weakened to conclude contracts with the government and the military. Contracts that are nevertheless essential, since they represent a third of the aircraft manufacturer’s turnover.
“Boeing’s culture is to prioritize profits over safety. »
The victims’ families are now saying: very disappointed “One of the lawyers confides: ” There is a lot of evidence (…) that Boeing’s culture is one of prioritizing profits over safety. “The civil parties have already requested that the agreement be rejected at a future hearing. Because this ” Generous plea deal relies on misleading and offensive premises “, according to the request filed by their lawyers.
Last January, the American giant was plunged back into crisis when an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX had to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel detached mid-flight. In 2021, the aerospace giant admitted that it had committed fraud in the certification of the 737 MAX 8, which was involved in two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. All 737 MAXs were then grounded for twenty months in the United States and around the world after these crashes.
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