by WorldTribune Staff, July 1, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
Boeing has reportedly been offered a plea deal by the Biden Department of Justice which calls for the aerospace company to plead guilty to fraud in a case where two Max 737 jets crashed, killing 346 people.
On Oct. 28, 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX crashed into Indonesia’s Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. On March, 10 2019, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed near the town of Bishoftu in Ethiopia six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.
“The underlying outrageous piece of this deal is that it doesn’t acknowledge that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people,” lawyer Paul Cassell said. He is representing some of the families in the case.
According to the Associated Press, Boeing must accept or reject the offer by the end of the week. The deal would include the company agreeing to have an independent monitor track Boeing’s compliance with anti-fraud laws.
The case stems from the DOJ concluding that Boeing violated an agreement that was set up in order to resolve a 2021 charge of conspiracy to defraud the federal government connected to the crashes. Prosecutors had argued that the company misled officials who approved the 737 Max and set pilot training requirements that were needed to fly the aircraft. Boeing had blamed two former pilots who had made instructions for flying the planes.
A lawyer representing families of the victims has called it a “sweetheart deal.”
Prosecutors reportedly told the families that if Boeing rejects the deal, the DOJ will seek to take the matter to trial. A conviction in the case could jeopardize Boeing’s status as a federal contractor.
Some of the families plan to ask that the Texas judge in the case reject the plea deal if Boeing agrees to it.
The families want to take Boeing to criminal court over the actions and for the company to pay a fine of $24.8 billion. Family members expressed outrage at the deal during the meeting and advocated for additional charges and a criminal trial.
One lawyer for the families, Mark Lindquist, said in a statement obtained by The Post Millennial, “The Max 9 door plug blowout, among other incidents, demonstrates the continuing safety issues at Boeing.”
He added, “In all of our cases against Boeing, I’m aiming not just for justice and accountability, but for Boeing to get its act together.”
Boeing gets ‘sweetheart deal’ from Biden’s DOJ in case connected to 346 plane crash deaths added by Editor Two on July 1, 2024
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