Boeing 737 MAX airplane.Photo: JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty
Boeing has reached a settlement with theUnited States Department of Justice(DOJ) over “a criminal charge related to a conspiracy to defraud theFederal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Evaluation Group,” the department stated.
The charge is related to the evaluation of the safety of Boeing’s controversial 737 MAX planes, which were involved in two deadly crashes between October 2018 and March 2019:Lion Air Flight 610andEthiopian Airlines Flight 302. Both crashes killed everyone on board, 189 and 157 people, respectively.
Thursday’s release also states that Boeing has agreed to pay over $2.5 billion.
The money will be “composed of a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6 million, compensation payments toBoeing’s 737 MAXairline customers of $1.77 billion and the establishment of a $500 million crash-victim beneficiaries fund to compensate the heirs, relatives, and legal beneficiaries of the 346 passengers who died,” the DOJ says.
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Boeing 737 MAX airplane.Stephen Brashear/Getty
Boeing saidin their own releaseon Thursday that “the agreement is based on the conduct of two former Boeing employees and their intentional failure to inform the FAA AEG, the group within the FAA responsible for making pilot training determinations, about changes to theManeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.”
Ina note to Boeing employees, President and CEO David L. Calhoun noted, “I firmly believe that entering into this resolution is the right thing for us to do — a step that appropriately acknowledges how we fell short of our values and expectations.”
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TheFAA issued an order back in Novemberthat wouldallow the 737 MAX to carry passengers once again, nearly two years after the plane was grounded following the two fatal crashes.
The 737 MAXcompleted its first commercial flightsince getting approved to fly again last month via American Airlines Flight 718, from Miami to N.Y.C.’s LaGuardia Airport.
source: people.com
