The Justice Department defended its settlement with Boeing over two crashes of the 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019, arguing it is a "strong and significant" resolution to the saga.
Families of the victims of the two crashes, which resulted in the deaths of 346 people, had offered their objections to the plea deal — which would see Boeing plead guilty to the charges levied by the DOJ and pay a $243.6 million fine along with a $455 million investment into improving its compliance and safety programs. In a filing last month, a group of the families accused the Justice Department of "treating Boeing’s deadly crime as another run-of-the-mill corporate compliance problem," with its proposed settlement.
The DOJ contended that its agreement with the plea deal would serve "the public interest" and is due to limitations of what the Justice Department believes it can prove in court, in a court filing on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas .
"In the Government’s judgment, the Agreement is fair and just, as well as a strong resolution of this matter that serves the public interest. And ultimately, the Government’s decision to enter into this Agreement is dictated by what it can prove in court and what it cannot," the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department argued that the plea agreement "holds Boeing to account for the most serious, readily provable offense — conspiracy to obstruct and impede the lawful operation of the Federal Aviation Administration Aircraft Evaluation Group," along with its violation of a 2021 settlement with the DOJ. It also argued that the agreement would not provide Boeing with immunity for other incidents, including the January episode where a door blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 shortly after takeoff in Portland, Oregon .
The court filing also refutes the victims' families' claims that their requests were ignored by noting that the plea deal would require the Boeing Board of Directors to meet with the victims' families—as they had requested. The DOJ also said that the victims' families' "voices have been heard, considered, and incorporated into the Government’s decision-making."
"The Government has the deepest respect for the victims and their passionate advocacy in this matter. Yet in the end, after years of investigation, the Government has not found the one thing that underlies the families’ most passionate objections to the proposed resolution: evidence that could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Boeing’s fraud caused the deaths of their loved ones," the Justice Department's Wednesday court filing said.
The plea deal requires the approval of Judge Reed O'Connor.
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The DOJ and Boeing confirmed in July that they had come to a tentative plea deal, a month after Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun publicly apologized to victims of the 737 Max crashes at a Senate hearing, saying the deaths “are gut-wrenching, and I apologize for the grief that we have caused.”
The agreement comes as Boeing has several other controversies over its planes, including the January Alaska Airlines incident involving a newer model of the 737 Max 9. The two crashes in 2018 and 2019 were 737 Max 8 planes.
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