Boeing will not face a criminal conspiracy trial over the two fatal 737
Max crashes that killed 346 people, after a U.S. judge in Texas
approved the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the case. Under
the deal, Boeing will pay or invest $1.1 billion toward fines, victim
compensation, and safety improvements, while being allowed to
appoint its own compliance consultant instead of an independent
monitor.
The decision comes despite criticism from victims’ families, who
urged the court to reject the agreement and demand a trial. Judge
Reed O’Connor called the deal insufficient for full accountability but
said he could not override the government’s judgment. The crashes —
in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 — were linked to a flawed
flight-control system Boeing failed to disclose to regulators, leading to
one of aviation’s worst corporate scandals. Pic courtesy: Wikimedia
Commons