The Boeing Airplanes Incident in December 2018 and January 2019, and two of its Max-Jets Missing Energy Flights, killed three people, and left behind
The DOJ and Boeing entered into an agreement in which the company promised to make safety changes after two Max crashes. But prosecutors say Boeing did not hold up its end of the deal. Boeing exceeded its obligations under the agreement by failing to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program, the federal government said in May.
A door-plug panel blew off a plane in January, just a few months after the letter came. The incident involved Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 sparked renewed scrutiny of Boeing’s operations by federal regulators, as well as the Justice Department.
While De Luis says he would welcome a guilty plea from Boeing, he and other family members were hoping to see even bigger fines — as well as personal accountability for Boeing’s leaders. De Luis says that the harsher penalties are necessary to make sure that we aren’t back here in a couple of years with the same issues.
The two crashes, which happened in 2018 and 2019, killed more than 300 people. The planes malfunctioned because of software that was intended to correct for a design flaw — and that software, called MCAS, relied on just a single external sensor for its data. The Federal Aviation Administration, airlines and pilots weren’t told about the dangers of the737 Max until after it was launched. When the two flights went down, the pilots were actively fighting against MCAS — and likely did not even know the software existed.
“This criminal conviction demonstrates the department’s commitment to holding Boeing accountable for its misconduct,” the statement said. Boeing will be required to make historic investments to strengthen its safety and compliance programs.
The penalties that the DOJ requested are woefully insufficient according to a lecturer in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
De Luis’s sister Graziella died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019. De Luis also served on an expert panel convened by the Federal Aviation Administration after the crash of that Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, and another one the year before, that killed 346 people in total.
A plea deal for a new independent compliance monitor in the U.S. isn’t going to work for Boeing, according to victims’ lawyers
“To me an independent compliance monitor being appointed is a significant step, and it does signal that the department wants some sort of outside oversight,” Martinez said.
Lawyers for the victims say that an independent monitor is needed, but they don’t agree with the Justice Department on how that monitor should be appointed.
Any person who is a member of the public can propose a proposed monitor, as long as they meet certain qualifications. Boeing would have an input into the final call by the Justice Department.
The families of some of the victims are not willing to give up on Boeing because they know they cannot be trusted, according to a lawyer with the firm.
The proposed plea deal still needs approval from U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas, who could hold a hearing in the case as soon as this month.
“The ultimate test is whether this is in the public interest to have the charges essentially resolved in this way,” he said. “And the victims, I think, have some very powerful, powerful reasons to suggest this isn’t a good deal.”