Boeing to be arraigned in court over two Max jet crashes

Boeing representatives and relatives of several passengers killed in two Boeing 737 Max jet crashes will meet face-to-face in a Texas courtroom on Thursday.

That’s where the aerospace giant will be charged with criminal charges that are believed to have been settled two years ago.

In a brief filed Wednesday, attorneys for the family accused Boeing of committing “the greatest corporate crime in U.S. history.”

The family members never questioned it before Boeing agreed to a deal with the US Department of Justice to avoid prosecution on fraud charges. Up to a dozen or more people from several countries will testify about the loss of a loved one.

There will be two main phases for the arraignment: Boeing will enter a plea, and the relatives of the passengers will ask the court to impose conditions on Boeing as they did on criminal defendants.

The family said on Wednesday that the situation should include monitors appointed by the court to evaluate whether Boeing is creating a culture of safety and ethics – as promised to the government – and that these measures will be made public.

Boeing has faced civil lawsuits, congressional investigations and massive damage to its business since the crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed a total of 346 people.

The Trump Admin agreed to release $2.5B in costs

Boeing and its top officials have avoided criminal prosecution, however, thanks to a settlement reached between the company and the US government in January 2021.

Boeing is charged with one count of lying to the United States to get regulators to approve the Max jet. But the outgoing Trump administration’s Justice Department agreed to suspend prosecution and drop charges if Boeing paid $2.5 billion — mostly to the airline, but included a $243.6 million fine — and committed no other crimes for three years.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ordered Boeing to stand trial after finding that the Justice Department violated victims’ rights laws by failing to tell families about secret negotiations with Boeing. He has not ruled on the issue of whether Boeing should lose immunity from prosecution.

Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing the family, said he hopes Thursday’s testimony by relatives will convince the Justice Department to throw out the settlement.

The Justice Department of the Biden Administration did not oppose the arraignment, but continued to agree with Boeing that the settlement should stand.

Erroneous sensor readings played a role in the crash

In a court filing last November, the department said that without the settlement, the government would lose its ability to ensure that Boeing follows through on reforms designed to prevent future tragedies.

The first Max passenger flight was in 2017. The first accident occurred in October 2018 in Indonesia and followed again in March 2019 in Ethiopia.

Before both crashes, Boeing’s initially undisclosed automatic flight control system told airlines and pilots to push the nose down based on incorrect sensor readings. Boeing has accused two former employees of misleading the Federal Aviation Administration about the system, known by its acronym, MCAS.

One of his former employees, a test pilot, was the only person charged in connection with Max. A jury in O’Connor’s courtroom found him not guilty last year.