The United States Department of Justice said in a court filing that it lacks evidence to prosecute Boeing (BOE, Washington National) for more serious crimes thus defending the plea deal it struck with the US planemaker.
Last month, Boeing pled guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States government in relation to the two fatal crashes of B737-8s in 2018 and 2019, agreeing to pay a fine of up to USD243.6 million but avoid a criminal trial. Some of the relatives of the 346 people killed in the accidents called for this deal to be rejected.
According to the Associated Press, DOJ officials told US District Judge Reed O’Connor that “the agreement is a strong and significant resolution that holds Boeing accountable and serves the public interest. It holds Boeing to account for the most serious, readily provable offence.”
Judge O’Connor, based in Fort Worth, Texas, can either accept the plea agreement and proposed sentence or reject it, most likely forcing new negotiations between Boeing and the Justice Department.
Moreover, the DOJ said it can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Boeing’s fraud directly and proximately caused the Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) and Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) plane crashes.
Boeing declined to comment.
However, despite the deal, Boeing could still be charged in connection with the Alaska Airlines B737-9 incident in January in which a mid-cabin plugged exit door separated mid-flight, resulting in an explosive decompression.
