What to know about the plea deal offered Boeing in connection with 2 plane crashes
Federal prosecutors and victims’ families are waiting for Boeing to decide whether to accept a plea deal that would settle a criminal fraud charge
Federal prosecutors and victims' families are waiting for Boeing to decide whether to accept a plea deal that would settle a criminal fraud charge accusing the aerospace giant of misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed.
Relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the October 2018 and March 2019 crashes are furious about the plea offer, which Justice Department prosecutors spelled out in an online meeting with the families and their lawyers on Sunday.
The families want to put Boeing on trial.
“This package offers another opportunity for Boeing to hide their misdeeds from the public,” Ike Riffel, a Californian whose two sons died in the second 737 Max crash, said Monday. “The families are very disappointed, but we vow to fight on.”
Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who is representing some of the victims' families, called it “a sweetheart deal” for Boeing.
Some of the lawyers involved in the case, however, say a plea deal is better than nothing.
“While I personally would have preferred a more vigorous prosecution, a guilty plea to a felony is a serious step up” from a 2021 agreement between Boeing and the Justice Department, said Mark Lindquist, a lawyer who is suing Boeing on behalf of passengers who survived a scary 737 Max inciden t at the beginning of this year.
The Justice Department first charged Boeing with fraud in January 2021 but agreed not to prosecute if the company paid a fine and followed other terms for three years. Then, seven weeks ago, the department said Boeing had violated the deferred prosecution
Read more on abcnews.go.com
