Boeing to Plead Guilty to Criminal Fraud Over Safety Failures—Starliner Shuttle and Astronauts Still 'Stuck' in Space

Aerospace giant, Boeing , has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States following the crashes of two 737 aircraft in which 346 people perished.

Knewz.com has learned that this comes amidst the ongoing and indefinite postponements of the return of the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who have been on the space station for 33 days—25 days longer than they were supposed to.

A court filing by the U.S. Justice Department on the evening of Sunday 7, noted that Boeing would pay $487 million in fines.

This ruling comes six years after an almost new 737 crashed shortly after take-off in Indonesia killing all 189 people on board.

Mere months later, a second aircraft of the same brand and model crashed under the same circumstances in Ethiopia killing 157.

Ensuing investigations found that a new automated system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was responsible for the crash .

Said investigations also found that leading up to the first crash, pilots were not informed of the new system, which forced the aircraft downwards at a high speed.

In the second crash, the pilots were informed and turned off the MCAS system as instructed, but the aircraft failed to pull out of its nose dive which ultimately ended in mass fatalities.

According to reports, the families of the victims of both crashes demanded $24.8 billion, as opposed to the current deal reached by Boeing and the Department of Justice.

More recently, (January 2024) a door plug flew off an Air Alaska flight shortly after take-off.

Notably, Boeing is an integral part of America as it not only services commercial air transport but also builds military aircraft and missiles for the U.S. Air Force—and of late not only did it build its own space shuttle but, in concert with NASA , sent it to the international space station.

Its burgeoning collection of embarrassments in commercial aviation, however, spilled onto its space endeavors when its Starliner shuttle developed rocket engine problems and started leaking helium.

As a result, the trip that was supposed to have lasted eight days has gone on for 33 with NASA and Boeing insisting that there is no reason to panic.

“We’re not stuck on the ISS. The crew is not in any danger, and there’s no increased risk when we decide to bring Suni and Butch back to Earth” vice president and program manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program, Mark Nappi, said.

NASA made a statement to the same tune, claiming “We have the luxury of time.”

He went on to say that the two companies were focused on collecting data and that they would bring the two astronauts back to Earth at a time of their choosing, per Sat News .

NASA and Boeing continue to run tests and simulations in what Dan Niedermaier (lead technician) claims is a bid to better “understand the [Starliner’s] thruster.”